u/yardii

I recently got into commander and have a precon and a B2 deck under my belt, but I'm quickly finding out that no one at my LGS actually plays at that bracket or at least wants to. I spoke to a few of the regulars last time and they said the vibe was mostly B3, but I've seen some turn 4 or 5 wins that make me think they're high 3 or 4. I'm still figuring out the bracket system.

I've been browsing this sub for a bit now and from all the helpful threads I've read, it seems to me there's 3 ways to compete with these decks on a budget: Run enough removal/stax to power them down, win faster, or play combo. I'm looking for some good suggestions or tips regarding commanders that fit these bills. My budget is $100 a month to spend on hobbies so I'd like a deck to be in that ballpark for cost.

I've seen a lot of cool commanders that allow for heavy removal or control gameplans: Wren, Kraven, Eluge, and general spellslingers like Talrand and Lord of the Nazgul have piqued my interest. In the card games I've played previously, I lean more towards control, so these may be more my style, but those games tended to go a lot longer than the EDH games I've been a part of.

As for going faster, I've seen a lot of cool tempo lists who aim to win through going wide with flyers like Edric or Raffine or decks that combine aggression with stax like Kutzil. I'm typically not a combo player in the other card games I've played, but I am open to suggestions on it.

Sorry for the personal story and thanks for all the useful information that's been posted here. Its been really helpful so far!

On the hunt for a self-mill/reanimator deck and my mind immediately thinks of running something with Black in it like [[Winter, Cynical Opportunist]], [[Mirko, obsessive theorist]], or [[Raffine, Scheming Seer]].

But I was browsing EDHRec today and noticed these are some of the top tags for the new [[Quintorius, History Chaser]] and was wondering how it operated despite excluding Black which has some of the more iconic reanimator cards. If you have experience with the precon or an upgraded version, how did you find it?

Like the title says, I've been pretty excited about the idea of playing big spells since SOS revealed the Prismari stuff, but I'm struggling to pick a commander to helm the deck since there are so many good options. Was wondering what some of your guys' suggestions would be.

Some thoughts I have about some of the options:
[[Ovika, Enigma Goliath]]: This one's really cool, but seems to me more like 99 card. I appreciate that it can absolute end games once its allowed to start pumping out goblins, but it just seems so slow and vulnerable even with a big Ward on it.
[[Mizzix of the Izmagnus]]: Seems really strong since experience counters can't be interacted with to my knowledge so there's no fear of having to start all over if he gets killed. I like that it gives you an excuse to play proliferate spells.
[[Galazeth Prismari]]: When playing a deck with instants, I usually feel like I can never tap out for a proactive play. I like that playing Galazeth doesn't have that drawback as long as you have some artifacts on the field the turn you play him. Also, the art one this one is beautiful.
[[Ashling, Rekindled]]: I've seen a lot of hype for this since Lorwyn dropped. Seems like one of the most aggressive and fastest to get online. You're casting 6+ mana spells on turn 4 with her and that's just awesome.
[[Rootha, Mastering the Moment]]: Another card that seems more like a 99 card to me. A pay-off rather than an enabler. Still, she seems cool and has the bonus of leading a precon which is just super convenient. Bonus points for nabbing Muddle which can be his own deck completely.

I've heard good stuff about [[Vadrik, Astral Archmage]] but I honestly just don't really feel like doing the whole day/night thing.

I'm pretty new to commander and am starting to move away from borrowing my buddy's decks. The decks I'm gravitating towards are mostly midrange or control decks or Simic Ramp with big guys. Whenever we play at my LGS, there usually comes a point in the night where we've just wrapped up a game, the store is closing in 30 minutes, and we want to fit one more quick one in before leaving.

What are some of your favorite budget commanders for knocking out that last quick game? So far, I've looked at [[Tannuk Steadfast Second]] or [[Henzie]] since they still get to cast big beaters, or maybe a [[Treebeard Gracious Host]] Go Wide deck since I enjoy LOTR.

Budget is ideally around or under $100. Thank you!