Five More cEDH Decks for Beginners
So, you want to get into cEDH. Captain America dot gif and all of that. My first five deck recommendations weren't good enough for you, or maybe they just didn't fit your vibe or your goals. That's okay! I have even more intro decks for you here, focusing on different ideals for different players! Whether you come from a Commander background, a competitive constructed background, or some mix of both, we'll find the right deck to get you into the highest power experience that 100 card singleton Magic can offer, or at least something to explore a different aspect of it.
We've got low color stuff, high color stuff, simple stuff, complex stuff, and everything in between. As I emphasized in my last article, it's important to find something that you're comfortable playing as you enter a relatively complex format with stuff to master beyond just jamming your spells. Let's get into it!
Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin
Two colors, both of which are pretty dang powerful, a strong Commander in our zone, and an intriguing gameplan. What's not to like? Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin is not only a great deck to bring to a tournament, it's also plenty fun while you're getting in your wins. The unique gameplan introduces a different element to your average game, putting the pressure on your opponents to NOT activate many common effects in the format in order to not trigger your Commander.
When I first started playing this deck soon after the release of Ob Nix, I was quickly amazed how many cEDH decks would effectively draw me many cards, growing him into a massive threat in the process. Besides commander damage, this deck can win through a variety of methods, the most easy being All Will Be One, allowing you to ping all of your opponents to death in one fell swoop. You also play the other classic Rakdos wincons, with the best being Dualcaster Mage and Twinflame (or Molten Duplication) to make infinite hasty 2/2s. However, some lists are even leaving this out now!
Looking beyond the win cons, you also get to play cards that you would never expect to see in a cEDH deck, with my favorites being Kederekt Parasite (seriously, just read that thing) and Modern Horizon 3's Party Thrasher. Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin is an interesting two-color deck that's good enough to win games while still staying fun and teaching me new stuff every time I play it; give it a try!
Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator / Tana, the Bloodsower
Alright. I'm doing it. I'm recommending it. You want a creature-based win condition, half of which is in the Command Zone? You want Eldritch Evolution and Survival of the Fittest to be the strongest cards in your deck? Like casting mana dorks and having them matter a lot? Interested in having a dynamic gameplan without having to worry about your colors too much while also sneakily being the potentially fastest deck at the table? If all of those sound good, Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator and Tana, the Bloodsower, aka Temur Pirates, may be the deck for you.
I like this list as a beginner choice for two reasons: three colors is a nice middle ground between not having to think about your mana while also getting to manage your needs some and gaining a powerful range of cards and it gives you a solid, focused direction. That direction? Put Glint-Horn Buccaneer into play to win the game in the combat step. By activating its ability to discard a card while it's attacking, Glint-Horn Buccaneer will deal a damage to each opponent, creating three Treasure tokens through Malcolm. You can then sac two of the three Treasures to activate Glint-Horn Buccaneer, repeating the process until all of your opponents are dead! There can be some difficulty if your opponents have wildly divergent life totals, especially if one opponent is significantly higher than the other two, as you do need to ensure you can actually execute the combo enough times to kill everyone. However, this doesn't happen all that often.
Temur Pirates is an intriguing deck that will teach you to jam your win within your windows while also giving you a bit of mana trouble to manage; together with a cool creature-based win condition it makes for a great entry point. Did I mention you get all the free counterspells?
If you want more info on Temur Pirates, read my writeup here on Commander's Herald.
Tivit, Seller of Secrets
This Esper Sphinx haunts my dreams at night. His huge six-mana casting cost can make you think you're safe at first, thinking it will take a while to cast. Nope. It's pretty trivial to cast him on turn two or three, all the while setting up value engines and the like. Once Tivit is in play, he is the ultimate value engine himself, drawing cards and making Treasures galore. He also is part of a two-card combo, alongside Time Sieve.
By sacrificing the five artifacts that are produced by his on-attack ability, you can take functionally infinite turns and kill your opponents with no trouble. There are other wincons in the deck as well, such as classic Thassa's Oracle combo and infinite mana loops with Hullbreaker Horror. Don't let all these efficient win cons kill you, though: Tivit is a great deck for you to learn if you're wanting to aim to control the table. You get to play with all the permission in the world, several board wipes, Silence, removal, and even Blind Obedience to slow down the Docksides that you feed insanely well.
It will teach you to be patient, bide your time, and how to look for and deal with other deck's win attempts and windows because, well, in a lot of games you'll need to get through them to not lose before you can cast your Hullbreaker Horror and take the game yourself. Avoid it if you want to put your commander into play on turn one, want to be the person jamming a win first, or can't handle losing to a Dockside Extortionist that you fed to astronomic heights with your Clue tokens.
If you want to learn more about Tivit, Seller of Secrets in cEDH, check out this extensive writeup from Ian Flannery, who piloted to Tivit to a major cEDH tournament win!
Magda, Brazen Outlaw
Magda, Brazen Outlaw is the quintessential laser-focused cEDH deck. Being mono-red and caring a lot about Dwarves and Treasure, this is another list that will give you a simple goal that may require a lot of sideways thinking and work to accomplish depending on the table you're at. It also features a strong and readily available combo win, just like the other decks on this list. Using Clock of Omens, Magda, and an Artifact Dwarf (usually Roaming Throne or Universal Automaton), you can make infinite tapped Treasures and from there figure out a way to win, usually involving Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker making plenty of infinite copies.
Magda helps navigate the gap between the beginning of the game and winning through the use of powerful artifact Stax pieces and related, all of them tutorable through her activated ability. I especially like cards like God-Pharaoh's Statue, Grafdigger's Cage, and Vexing Bauble (a new one!) and the way they attack the cEDH meta. These also relate to a lesson that I think this deck can teach you - when to continue locking down the board to disrupt your opponents vs. aiming to win the game with your tutoring instead. This is a hard inflection point to hit in any deck but this one feels particularly suited to teach it since you have so many chances to tutor.
You also can get a feel for what pieces disrupt opponents when and why they're at their most effective. All of the above, together with a pretty powerful plan and the ease of being single color, makes this a solid starting option. I like this deck so much that I named it the best mono-color deck you could play in cEDH in my last article!
If you would like to get a real deep dive into this deck, check out Sam Black's feature on it from earlier this year!
Magda, Brazen Outlaw in cEDH - The Best Deck No One's Talking About
Najeela, the Blade-Blossom
Najeela is a deck I'll recommend for a very specific type of person only and that's those who are already pretty heavily invested in Magic in a competitive sense. Juggling complex decision trees (thanks to playing... basically all the best cards), managing your mana, and even the important choice every turn of who is best to attack can be overwhelming to players coming from an EDH background. But, if your Magic experience is in extensive Modern grinding or even more intense than that, Najeela will be my recommendation every time.
It is a deck that can do it all. Combat infinite combos, Thassa's Oracle wins, Underworld Breach shenanigans, Midrange games, long games, fast games, interaction, drawing cards, all of it. No matter what you need, Najeela has the answer. If that seems like the right deck for you, check out Drake Sasser's deep dive into the deck.
cEDH Is Your Oyster
Like I said in my last version of this article, the deck that is best for you to play in cEDH is the one that will keep you playing. Whether that's a unique deck of your own invention, one of the now ten decks I've recommended to new players, or a tournament standby, if it keeps you playing cEDH and wanting to play and learn more, that's the right deck for you. Get in there!
