TIER ONE COMMANDER DECKS PLUS

They’ve been on top of the Commander game since way before Flash was banned. Thrasios, Triton Hero and Tymna the Weaver are the archetypal tier 1 commanders. Golos, Tireless Pilgrim also belongs here as a Turbo Naus deck, but he’s arguably worse than Tymna and Thrasios at that playstyle.

TIER ONE COMMANDER DECKS PLUS

I’ll only be covering the top three, but there are a few other decks that go into this tier like Najeela, the Blade-Blossom and Tymna plus Kraum, Ludevic’s Opus. Tutors, fast mana, and infinite combos are the bread and butter of this tier, with most decks overflowing with plenty of each. With that being said, they can be outclassed by lower tier decks in specific situations. These are the optimal decks to play assuming an “average” meta. This tier belongs to some of the fastest combo decks and the harshest of stax. Some decks need more room for cards that are just combo pieces. How many different wincons can the deck run? The same goes for a deck that can win on your opponent’s turn against one that can’t. A deck that can win on the stack is better than one that needs all of its pieces on the field. This gives you more versatility in what cards you can play and makes you less susceptible to hate pieces like Boil. When you disregard budget, you’ll find that the more colors you have in your commander’s color identity, the better. You need to be able to protect your gameplan and come back from situations that go awry. If you have a deck that could threaten a win on turn 1 but it folds to Gut Shot, that’s an example of a deck that lacks resiliency. How quick is the deck? The faster your gameplan, the less time your opponents get to interact with you. There are a few key factors that I’m going to use to determine a commander’s placement: This means that all casual etiquette goes out of the window infinite combos, mass land destruction, fast mana, etc. I’ll judge the commanders based on their performance at the helm of their strongest deck. Phage the Untouchable | Illustration by Ron Spears

Tier one commander decks