How To Be New: Choosing Your First Commander

Fresh-Faced Recruit by Anthony Palumbo

Welcome back to How to be New, a series in which I, a person who started playing Commander in October 2024, discuss what it's like to be a new Commander player in the modern era of Magic. It's the only place to get advice for new players actually written by a new player, so whether you're Commander-curious or an Innocent Bystander

Okay, so, you've finally watched enough episodes of your friendly neighborhood YouTube Commander show that you've decided to dive in to Commander yourself. This is an important step. It's a step which may prove ruinous for your free time and your personal finances, but one that we here at Commander's Herald wholeheartedly encourage.

But then comes the immediate question: "What should my first Commander deck be?"

And the immediate answer is, of course, a precon.*

However, if you're like me (read: hyperfixate on things like it's your job), you want to do it yourself. This is also a fantastic choice. The experience of playing a deck you've carefully constructed and watching the interactions you pictured in your head finally play out on a real life table is one of the greatest joys in Magic: The Gathering. Personally, I believe it's where "Magic" really earns that name. Even if you crash and burn on your first outing, you'll find joy in the adjustment, and in the testing, and in the tinkering (and then once that joy begins to fade, in doing it all over again with yet another brand new deck).

Make no mistake, there is a lot of advice out there about how to pick the commander around which you will build your first 100-card deck, and it can take any number of different directions. Some will talk about which color identities align with your favorite play patterns, or about which commanders are beginner-friendly to pilot**, or perhaps which Commander archetypes can be effective without having to overspend on expensive staple cards. These are all fine pieces of advice. But they're all wrong. I can tell you exactly which Commander to pick for your first deck:

Whichever One You Think Seems Cool

This is, to some degree, shamelessly stolen from Pat Gil's excellent advice about getting into fighting games, but the principle holds true here too. Starting from scratch can be difficult, but it's the passion you have for your chosen special boi that will keep you going through the questions and the uncertainty.

For example, I chose The Jolly Balloon Man

Look at the glee on his face as he goes about his grim work! Look at his stripey pants and weird feet. Ask yourself, why would someone so dedicated to making balloons have sawblade pauldrons and long nails framing his head? Where did he get buttons large enough to cover the eyes of the balloon in the foreground? This is a man who delights in his craft and relishes the challenge, and I'm sorry, he can take my other creatures and make THEM into balloons, too? I don't need to know a single other card in this deck to know that Junkrat's black sheep cousin and I are ride-or-die familia for life.

So go out and find your Jolly Balloon Man! Do you like westerns? Horror? Cyberpunk? Fallout: New Vegas? Magic has all of that! Do you like Doctor Who? Grab a copy of The Tenth Doctor

Two Major Caveats

There are two legitimately important things to consider when choosing your commander beyond how wonderful and precious they are to you.

1. Commanders must be legendary creatures. This is an important rule of the Commander format. But most of the fun characters are legendary. Heck, there are four different legendary creature versions of Gollum
   . Let's just say you're not going to find yourself without good choices.
2. Try to pick something with at least two different colors of mana on their card. When you build your deck, you'll only be able to use cards from colors that are featured anywhere on your commander's card (most often in their cost in the top-right corner), and only having one color can be somewhat restricting. Two or three colors are usually the sweet spot for Commander.

Okay, Now On To The Fun Stuff

If you're more of a fan of pop culture, look through this list of Universes Beyond releases to find your favorite licensed legendary creature.

If you're more interested in aesthetics, look through any of the major sets in the last year and a half. You have Aetherdrift for racing, Duskmourne: House of Horror for horror, Bloomburrow for cute animals, Outlaws of Thunder Junction for western, Murders at Karlov Manor for murder mystery, Wilds of Eldraine for storybook fantasy. Chances are one of those will have something you can vibe with.

If you're interested in mechanics, take a look through lists like this one we put out about the Top 10 Commanders of 2024. These articles are helpful not only to help you learn about some good options, but also because they often feature a bit of info about how the deck plays to help you get a feel for what your play experience will be like.

Otherwise, just dig through Magic content and find something that you like. Watch YouTube Commander shows, search through Scryfall***, look at the other articles on this very website. Go wherever it takes to find a first commander that you absolutely love, and if you're between a couple of choices, head to EDHREC and search some of their best synergies. Are there cards there that you'll be excited to play and won't break the bank to acquire? If so, my friend, you've got yourself a commander.

And that's it! I mean, that's not it it. You still have 99 cards to go before you have a full deck. But hey, 38 of those will just be your lands! (Spoiler: This is great news now, but terrible news later when you have 90 precious cards that you can't imagine cutting from this deck).

I know that assembling your first Commander deck can be a daunting task, but it's made so much easier when you have a manic clown demon by your side to hold your hand every step of the way. So get out there and find yours. Find your Jolly Balloon Man, and let them teach you how to fly.

*"Precon" is short for "preconstructed deck," and refers to the 100-card, ready-to-play Commander decks which Wizards of the Coast will typically release alongside every new Magic set. They're an excellent place to start, and rolling up to a Commander Night with an unmodified precon deck is a solid, and in fact commendable, move. If you don't know where to start, but want the experience of playing Commander to help you decide what you might like to do, this is a great option (and will be the basis of an article later in this series).

**"Pilot": The act of the player making decisions, taking actions, and otherwise playing the game of Magic. Often in reference to the skill of the "pilot" at the game of MTG, or the intricacy and finesse required to play a certain deck i.e. "I like how many extra Upkeep Phases I get from this deck, but it makes the thing very tough to pilot."

***Scryfall is the premiere way to search through the entire database of available Magic: The Gathering cards, but it has a search syntax that you may find absolutely impossible to parse. If that's the case, try Gatherer instead.