MTG Commander Deck Guide: Building, Budget, and cEDH

The short MTG Commander deck guide: start with a precon. Commander, also called EDH, is Magic's 100-card multiplayer format: one legendary commander, 99 other cards with no duplicates except basic lands, and 40 life for each player around the table. A precon is a legal, working deck the day you open it, and it teaches you what you actually want from the format before you spend money on singles.

What Is Commander / EDH?

Your commander starts the game face up in the command zone, outside your deck. You can cast it from there any time you could cast it normally, but each recast costs an extra two generic mana (the "commander tax"). If it would go to your hand, library, graveyard or exile, you can send it back to the command zone instead. A player who takes 21 combat damage from the same commander loses, whatever their life total.

The commander has to be a legendary creature, or one of the legendary Vehicles or Spacecraft the current rules allow. Games are built for three to five players, usually four, and Wizards suggests about 20 minutes per player, so a full pod can run a couple of hours.

Every card in the other 99 must fit your commander's color identity: the colors of every mana symbol in a card's cost or rules text. Hybrid symbols count both ways, so Kitchen Finks, with two green-or-white hybrid symbols in its cost, has a green-white identity and can't go in a mono-green deck. Reminder text doesn't count.

Kitchen Finks: hybrid symbols in the cost give it a green-white color identity. Card image: Wizards of the Coast, via Scryfall.

Brackets are Wizards' optional way to match decks of similar power before a game. There are five. Brackets 1 and 2 allow no Game Changers (a list of cards that tend to warp games), Bracket 3 allows up to three, and Brackets 4 and 5 allow any number. Wizards also gives each bracket a turn expectation: games should last at least eight turns in Bracket 2, six in Bracket 3 and four in Bracket 4, while in Bracket 5 "these games could end on any turn." Ask your table which bracket they're playing before you shuffle up.

Want it shown rather than read? MTG Therapy's beginner video covers the deck-building rules, how a game runs and table etiquette in under six minutes.

• MTG Commander Brackets Explained: All 5 Brackets in 2026: how to pick your bracket from the turn counts, not just the card list.
• How to Build Your First Commander Deck: Lands, Ramp, Removal: the deck shape EDHREC's most popular commanders share, from land count to Sol Ring.
• MTG Commander Party: Reality Fracture Dates and Promo: when the October Commander Party runs and how to find a store.
• Mystery Booster Commander Edition: 60 New Cards and Dates: the new cards, draft rules and the date they become legal.
• Rule Zero in MTG Commander: What It Means and What to Say: the pregame talk where the table agrees what's allowed, and what to say in it.
• MTG Color Combinations: Names, Playstyles and How to Pick: all 26 names from Azorius to WUBRG, how many commanders each has, and which to start with.
• Saltiest Cards in Commander: EDHREC's 2026 Salt Score List: the top 20 from this year's vote, why players hate each card, and which ones you'll actually meet at a table.
• Commander Tax in MTG: How It Works, Partners and Reducers: each cast from the command zone costs {2} more than the last, and casting from your hand skips the tax.
• Best Card Draw Commanders in MTG: Tier List and Picks: card draw commanders ranked in tiers from EDHREC's Card Draw theme, with Nekusar first.
• Partner Commanders in MTG: Rules for Every Partner Type: which partner abilities pair with which, from plain partner to Choose a Background.
• Best Partner Commanders in MTG: Tier List by Partner Type: partner commanders ranked by EDHREC deck counts, with Tymna, Thrasios and Rograkh on top.
• Commander Damage Rules in MTG: What Counts and What Doesn't: only combat damage from one commander counts toward 21, with partners, stolen commanders, infect and Vehicles covered.
• Commander Banned List 2026: All Banned Cards and Unbans: the 42 named banned cards, the banned groups, and the February 2026 unbans of Biorhythm and Lutri.
• Reality Fracture Commanders Ranked: All 89 by EDHREC Decks: the set's commanders in five tiers by how many EDHREC decks use them, with Jace, Tam and Vraska on top.

Building the 99: what the average deck runs

You'll see plenty of rules of thumb for Commander ratios. We'd rather look at what decks actually run. On October 13, 2026 we pulled EDHREC's average decks for the 100 most popular commanders:

Sol Ring appeared in all 100, Arcane Signet in 99 and Command Tower in 93. Ramp, draw, removal and wipe counts come from Scryfall's card tags, so a card can count in two roles.

How does that compare with the math? Frank Karsten's formula for a 99-card deck starts at 31.42 lands plus 3.13 times your average mana value, minus about a quarter of a land per cheap ramp or draw spell. Run it for a deck with lots of cheap ramp and you land right where the average decks sit. Run it for a deck with little ramp and it asks for several more lands than the average deck runs.

Chart: BaseMTG. Source: Frank Karsten's formula (TCGplayer) and EDHREC average decks, October 13, 2026.

Our rule: if your deck runs fewer than ten cheap ramp pieces, play more lands than the average deck, not fewer.

• Best Mana Rocks in Commander: Tier List for Every Bracket: which rocks to run at each bracket now that the fastest ones are Game Changers.

Precon and Budget MTG Commander Deck Guides

Commander precons are the cheapest way into a deck that already works. The usual upgrade path is to play the deck unchanged first, then cut the ten or fifteen cards that never do anything (often vanilla-ish creatures or cards for a theme the deck doesn't really run) and add cheap ramp, removal and pieces that push the commander's plan. On r/magicTCG, a reply to a new player overwhelmed by the format put it well: "Precons are so competently built these days that if they can’t compete with what your friends are playing, they’re playing too high a bracket for a beginner anyway." (comment)

If you'd rather build from scratch on a budget, pick a commander that rewards cheap cards. Tribal commanders do this best, because a pile of on-theme commons does the same job as one expensive staple.

• Doom Prevails Precon Upgrade Guide: Stay in Bracket 2: five swaps that keep the Doctor Doom deck free of Game Changers.
• Budget Commander Decks Under $50: What Actually Fits: building around Lathril or Wilhelt so every cheap card pulls double duty.
• Wakanda Forever Precon Upgrade Guide: Marvel Commander: T'Challa's Vibranium engine or go-wide, with budget upgrades for the Selesnya deck.
• Cheapest Budget Commander Decks, Priced Card by Card: ten EDHREC budget lists ranked by total cost, Krenko cheapest.
• Reality Fracture Precons Ranked: Which of the 6 to Buy: the six precons ranked by how many EDHREC staples each box holds.
• Multiverse Reforged Precon Upgrades: 6 First Swaps (2026): cutting the top-heavy cards and adding red sources.
• Avengers Assemble Upgrade Guide: 7 Swaps for Captain America: cheap swaps for the Captain America precon, with the full list.
• Fantastic Four Precon Upgrade Guide: Best Commander, 7 Swaps: fixing a sorcery-heavy deck under Mister Fantastic, Galactus stays.
• Tramplesaurus Rex Precon Upgrade Guide: 10 Budget Swaps: trading mana creatures for land ramp, no Game Changers added.
• Calling All Angels Precon Upgrades: Best Swaps for Giada: cheap removal and cost reducers for Giada, Angels kept.
• Wretched Ranks Precon Upgrades: Best Swaps for Gisa: sacrifice outlets and high-power bodies for Ghoulcaller Gisa, Zombies kept.
• Reign of Dragons Precon Upgrades: Best Swaps for Lathliss: cost reducers and mana-making Dragons for Lathliss, plus a Ganax combo to avoid.

cEDH Staples and High-Power MTG Commander Deck Guides

cEDH is Commander at Bracket 5: decks built to win as early as the table allows, usually with a compact combo backed by fast mana, cheap tutors and efficient interaction. Those staples show up across dozens of commanders because they're generically strong, not because they fit one theme. Partner pairs are common at the top of the tournament data; over the three months to October 14, 2026, Kraum, Ludevic's Opus with Tymna the Weaver was the most-entered pairing on EDHTop16.

That fast, consistent mana is also where the MTG Reserved List comes in: the original dual lands are on it, and even the cheapest copies cost hundreds of dollars each.

• cEDH Staples Guide: Fast Mana, Tutors, and Interaction: staples grouped by job: fast mana, cheap tutors, efficient interaction.
• cEDH Meaning in MTG: What Competitive Commander Actually Is: what cEDH is, which commanders win tournaments, and how to try it.
• MTG Tutors: The Best Tutor in Every Color for Commander: the best tutor in each color, split by whether it sits on the Game Changers list.

Commander Synergy and Archetypes

Between precon level and cEDH you'll find decks built around one thing the commander rewards, whether a creature type, a keyword or a card type. Lathril, Blade of the Elves is a good example. It makes an Elf token for each point of combat damage it deals, and once you control ten untapped Elves it can tap them to drain each opponent for 10. Cheap Elves from a dozen sets all pull weight in that deck, which is why tribal is the friendliest budget archetype.

Combo commanders want the opposite: fewer theme cards and more ways to find and protect the few pieces that win.

• MTG Infinite Combos: Most-Played Commander Combos by Bracket: the combos EDHREC sees most, sorted by Commander Spellbook's bracket tags, with who should play or skip each one.

Our take

Buy a precon whose commander you like the look of, play it unchanged for a few weeks, and keep a list of the cards that never did anything. Those are your first cuts. Skip the urge to build a "better" deck before you've played twenty games; you won't know what better means yet. And remember the format's social side. Answering a new player who found Commander miserable, one r/magicTCG reply said: "It’s just as important who you play with as it is what you play maybe you’re just in the wrong group." (comment)

How we checked: rules against the Comprehensive Rules effective September 25, 2026 and Wizards' Commander and Brackets pages, read October 15, 2026; deck medians from EDHREC average decks for the top 100 commanders, pulled October 13, 2026; cEDH entries from EDHTop16 on October 14, 2026.

Related Reading

• How to Play Magic: The Gathering: Rules and Basics: start here if you're new to Magic.
• MTG Standard Format Guide: Rotation, Archetypes, Meta: the 60-card format many players learn first.
• MTG Card Price Guide: Values, Reprints, and Selling: what your Commander singles are worth before you buy.

References

• Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules, effective September 25, 2026
• Commander Format and Brackets, Wizards of the Coast
• Commander Brackets Beta Update, October 21, 2025, Wizards of the Coast
• EDHREC Top Commanders
• EDHTop16