The Most Underrated Factor in Winning Commander Games Today

“There’s always a bigger fish.”

-Aristotle (and coincidently, Qui-Gon Jinn)

    In my early days of commander, I only had two decks. One was a Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts Orzhov good stuff deck, and one was an Atraxa Infect deck. Neither list was particularly impressive as I really didn’t have a lot of experience in those days, but they were fun to play nonetheless. One night I went to our local game store hoping to get in a game or two to test the decks out. It was a slow night and there was only one player in the store shopping for video games. He agreed to play with me and borrowed one of the decks. He chose to borrow Teysa. We played three games in a row and I got smacked around in Every. Single. Game. After the third defeat, we decided to switch up decks and I would love to tell you that there was an imbalance in the decks against each other and I was able to pull out the victory, but I respect you too much to lie. I was handed yet another three losses in a row.

    This player had been playing a higher power commander since the inception of EDH. At this time, he had a Derevi cEDH deck and was a master of playing with precise timing. Regardless of who was playing which deck, the odds of me actually beating him was rather slim. Which brings me to my topic of the day, “The Most Underrated Factor in Winning Commander Games” This factor is simply the skill of the pilot.

    As the old adage goes, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” In our playgroup we had a player we will call Rudy. Rudy would play with us a lot and he would listen to us when it came to suggestions for adding cards to his decks. The decks he had were worth about as much as our decks are worth and we would meet up to play about the same number of times per week. The only problem was, he never would win. No matter the matchup. he just couldn’t find a way to close out games. The main difference between us and Rudy was what we were doing when we weren’t hanging out.

    Some of our friends love to be the first one to discover a new card from a set or to get the first deck list posted for a commander. I personally spend a lot of time in the car commuting to work, so I listen to my fair share of Magic: The Gathering podcasts. So, every time we would meet up, everyone in the group would be that much stronger of a player knowing more about timing, threat assessment, and card synergies. Rudy spent his off time watching streamers of various video games or watching Futurama. Now, I’m not saying what he did was wrong in any capacity. You have every right to do with your free time what you choose. But when it came to play, the variance between our skill level and his was just too great.

    The more you play in the format of commander, you start to understand the game and the most efficient lines to play for your deck. Here are some examples. The other night I played against a newer player that was playing an esper wheel deck with Queza, Augur of Agonies at the helm. In this deck, he was running a pretty powerful list from what I saw with cards like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Smothering Tithe, and Orcish Bowmasters. In the game around turn 4 on his main phase, he casts Notion Thief with no mana left to spend and passes the turn. One of the best parts of Notion Thief is that it is designed as a “Gotcha!” card with the ability to be cast at instant speed which would have been devastating for the table if cast in response to a wheel. During that rotation, Notion Thief was destroyed in a board wipe that left the rest of the table feeling lucky the problem was taken care of.

    Another example is simply in the card selection. Players that spend more time researching magic cards will find those hidden gems for their decks that can put their power over the top. If you grab a list off of the internet and play, you might not fully grasp what is happening with the deck and will miss out on synergies. It can also be harder to determine which cards are slowing you down rather than helping you. The players that spend the time researching will have the deck finely tuned to do exactly what it is that they are wanting to do.

    The final example I can bring up is what I like to call the sixth sense. In chess they call it “Intuition.” It comes from the vast amounts of games and puzzles you play that allow you to determine when a tactic or powerful move is available. It works in the players subconscious almost like a spidey sense. In magic you’ll see this in game by having a gut feeling with that voice telling you “If I pass my turn and it gets back to player 4 without anyone using removal, he’s going to win.” It’s built up from all of your past games, almost building up a narration for how the game will play out. Can your intuition be wrong? Absolutely! Without perfect information knowing what is in everyone’s hands or what they will draw next, you can absolutely be incorrect. But, it can also guide your decision making into knowing how to play out your game. The important thing to know is having intuition is not going to help a player if you don’t know any of the cards being played.

    At the end of the day, people win and lose games for lots of reasons. Sometimes, that third land drop comes way too late, sometimes you get flooded out. Other times, your deck just was not in the right pod or not up for the challenge. But before you look at any of those reasons, first ask yourself, “What could I have done differently in that game to win if this comes up again?” If there’s a lot of things you could have done differently, then maybe you should spend some time listening to some podcasts, watch some gameplay videos, or even ask around your LGS for advice. By working on becoming a better pilot, you can turn losses into lessons and be better prepared for the next time you play commander.

   Thank you for reading!

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