Building A 200 Card EDH Deck! - An Introduction To The Pile Method
Battle of Wits | Illustrated by Jason Chan
Dihada, Binder of Wills | Illustrated by Néstor Ossandón Leal
Atla Palani, Nest Tender | Illustrated by Ekaterina Burmak
Zhulodok, Void Gorger | Illustrated by Lius Lasahido
There are three key aspects of a Commander deck: the commander, a single copy of each nonbasic land, and it has to be 100 cards. Over the years, some of these rules have been bent. Cards like Persistent Petitioners or Relentless Rats let you play any number of them.
Partner and Background commanders give you access to two commanders. And finally, you can build a companion deck, giving your deck a potential third commander. The only thing we haven't been able to do is build a deck with more than 100 cards. The rules clearly state that Commander decks must have 100 cards.
But what if we could bend the rule, so we still have a Commander-legal deck, but it's more than 100 cards? And I'm not talking about making a new format or rule zero conversations. So let's dive in and see how we can build a 200-card deck.
The Pile Method
How do we build a 100+ card deck? Simply put, we use the pile method.
The idea is simple. Let's say you're building Atla Palani, Nest Tender and you need to decide what 35 creatures to add to the deck. There are a lot of considerations to be made.
Do you want it to be incredibly powerful with big, haymakers like Etali, Primal Conqueror, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, and Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant? Maybe you want to play budget creatures, like Thragtusk, Kona, Rescue Beastie, and Kogla and Yidaro.
Instead of limiting yourself to 35 creatures, what if you shuffled 35 random creatures each game, or once a night, from a pile of creatures? That is exactly what my friend did. Instead of limiting yourself to a certain set, play all the creatures you want. Have a random foil rare? Shuffle it up. Want to play Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Zealous Conscripts but not see them every game? Now you can.
You can tune the piles based on power level. You could have the bulk pile that's just creatures you had lying around for when you want a lower-powered game, or a higher power pile that's filled with two-card combos and haymakers. Maybe you want to always keep 10 Egg creatures in the deck, just shuffle in 25 creatures instead.
Yes, this adds to the variance of Commander, but that is one of the best parts of the format. Or you can create themed piles like all Dinosaurs, Beasts, or Cats.
Picking a Pile Commander
How does one pick a pile commander? There are a few key things you should be on the lookout for. I'll use Atla Palani, Nest Tender as an example here. Does the commander care about a certain card type? How restrictive is their ability? Can they win using a random pile? Yes, she cares about creatures and Eggs. She generates Egg tokens by herself, so you don't need to add specific Egg support. And yes, creature beatdown is a viable win condition.
Some other pile commanders would be Dihada, Binder of Wills legendary pile. Whenever you find a legendary creature you like, add it to the pile. Dihada works because she buffs and digs for legendary creatures, which is exactly why my friend built her as a pile commander. A pile deck I'm currently working on is Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. He just cares if the creature isn't Human. I'm taking all of my favorite non-Human black creatures and shuffling 30 in each game.
Other ideas I've had are Baylen, the Haymaker token pile, Commodore Guff planeswalker pile, and Zhulodok, Void Gorger seven-mana pile. All of these commanders have clear strategies and abilities that work with any card that meets the requirements.
And of course, there are commanders I'd avoid building pile decks with, such as Sauron, the Dark Lord, Kenrith, the Returned King, or Queen Marchesa. I find generically powerful commanders such as these are hard to design piles around.
Making Your Piles
Once you've chosen your pile commander, you need to decide how many cards you want to shuffle in each game. I've found somewhere between 25-35 is the sweet spot. That generally provides enough core cards to have the deck function while adding a solid amount of variance. For example, my friend shuffles 30 creatures into their Egg deck. It's an easy number to remember, and you probably want roughly 30 creatures in a creature-based deck.
Other Pile Ideas
You can also shuffle in a smaller number of spells. Let's say you just build the new Storm, Force of Nature and you want to give storm spells, like Grapeshot, multiple instances of storm. What if, instead, you shuffled in five random storm spells each game?
Changing five cards won't dramatically lower the power of the deck, but it will still add some variance depending on which you end up adding. You could make a bunch of Beasts with Hunting Pack or burn the table with Ignite Memories. I've even toyed with the idea of making a Storm pile deck where you shuffle in 25 random instants and sorcery spells.
The Core
Finally, we need to build the core of the deck. These are the 65-75 cards that won't change between games. I try not to add cards of the same type that I'm making a pile for in the core. For example, for Atla, the core doesn't have any creatures.
This makes it easier to find the cards you're swapping out each game. Just like any Commander deck, you need to make sure to add lands, ramp, removal, and card draw. I suggest adding a bit more of each than you might otherwise since the mana curve of the deck will change between games. Then add whatever support pieces you might need for your strategy.
While I don't have an exact deck building guide for the core deck, I'd recommend you check out Brian Cain's article "How to Build a Commander Deck" on EDHREC and my brewing guide.
If you like the idea of pile decks, you might want to check out my modular Doctor Who and Storm, Force of Nature deck techs where I build multiple decks using the same commanders, and if you want pile commander deck techs, let me know in the comments or over on Bluesky at @brbmtg.bsky.social.
