Changing Commanders

[DrSeaMonster]

So. This is a thing that I've done a few times...How often do you change the commanders for your decks?

Maybe this year's precons had a better option in those colors, maybe something good from the new fall set, or even the core set had a new legendary that was the right colors, but better for the theme,

My first two decks, Teneb and Intet, became Karador and Riku after the release of the first Commander decks, My Oros slowly evolved into a Mathas over many years and I recently turned my Teysa, Orzhov Scion into a Teysa Karlov.

Do any of you find yourselves doing this?

[PrimevalCommander]

My very first decks were also Teneb and Intet, and also became Karador and Riku upon release.

... I am still running Karador and Riku...

I do not change commanders very often at all. If I do, it will likely just be a different deck all together. I have been looking for a replacement for Riku because it hasn't been very interesting for me lately, however I cannot find another option in those colors that speaks to me any better. Riku is on the verge of retirement for something more inspiring.

When I was playing lots of magic, I had 15 decks including one for every 3 color combination. When I started working full time and started a family, I reduced down to only 5 decks and only retained 3 of the commanders I was playing (Karador and Riku included). The rest of the cards went to building a commander CUBE, which is a lot of fun.

[Dunharrow]

It happened once, to improve a deck - Ruric Thar became Mina and Denn.
I once built a Damia deck but hated it and took it apart - I imagine some day it will become Muldrotha.

But I don't really change commanders often, because I usually build specifically around the commander.

[DrSeaMonster]

My Vorosh deck did something a little different.

I built a Vorosh deck, put Skullbriar in it, felt the blue wasn't working out so I turned it into a Skullbriar deck, didn't enjoy that, so I took it apart...and then later built a new Vorosh deck that's much more interesting.

[Necrofish]

Depends on the kind of deck really.

I currently run Esper Zombies with Varina, Lich Queen. Before that I think I was running UB, since I lacked another Esper Commander. I also don't see any replacement for Varina soon since I'm very tribal heavy and enjoy the addition of W with Amonkhet a lot. Unless WotC is printing another Esper Zombie Commander soon I will stick with her.

Until recently I had a Mono-B Rats EDH where I had the option to switch my commanders for different strategies. This was a built in option though which I always kept viable.

[WizardMN]

I can only remember 3 decks where I switched commanders: Doran, the Siege Tower became Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Adun Oakenshield was swapped for Xira Arien (or vice versa; I don't remember), and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa & Vial Smasher the Fierce turned into Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder & Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper.

Of those, Karador was almost immediately changed to Doran (after one game) since it was my very first deck and it is still kicking to this day. My Jund deck was taken apart and I now have a completely different Jund deck now (Lord Windgrace), and the 4 color deck was taken apart shortly after changing the generals because 4 color decks suck.

I do what others have pointed out: I build for the general in mind so if that doesn't work, I will usually just take it apart and then I might try a new deck in those colors with a different general later.

[RainyDay]

Switching commanders is only really an option when your commander isn't an integral part of your deck, as in when you're mainly using them for their colors or power, rather than building the deck around them. The only time I can remember switching commanders instead of just breaking down my deck and rebuilding was when I had to change the commander of my 5-color superfriends deck to from Progenitus to Cromat because the big guy was too threatening and people would always come gunning for me from turn 1.

[SocorroTortoise]

I changed the general of my RUG clones deck from Intet to Riku when he was released and that was probably the last time. I'll rebuild decks in similar color combos with similar themes under new generals more or less constantly, but that starts from the ground up every time.

[Sinis]

My generals usually last about a year or less, with some exceptions. It's less that I have a pile of cards that I want to put a new general on, and more that there are generals I want to build and haven't.

I get bored of my piles eventually; there's only so many times I could cast Maelstrom Wanderer to cascade twice before it became kind of boring/old-hat. Even more generic commanders eventually have their mechanics grow stale for me, though those ones tend to last the longest, ironically.

[DrSeaMonster]

Seems like a lot of you retire commander decks after a while. I very rarely do that. I'm constantly iterating my decks, every couple of months I take a solid look at each one and try to see how I can improve it with different cards. I just got finished overhauling all 17.

[WizardMN]

For me, I tend to have a core of 4 decks: Karador, Karametra, Ephara, and Gisela. They each represent a different aspect of play (Control, Aggro, and 2 different forms of Midrange) and I spent a lot of time tweaking and tuning them to be where I want them to be. So, these are likely never going to be dismantled.

But yeah, I do then tend to be more "experimental" with new builds and, as such, they might not do everything I want and might get dismantled later. I think I have gotten to a good point where I don't do as much of that and I don't dismantle things as easily but I could see a future where Lord Windgrace and even Niv-Mizzet no longer exist in my rotation.

I did go through and build most of Yarok, the Desecrated before I realized it wasn't going to be much fun so I kind of preemptively dismantled that one. I have had a few others like that too.

I think I maxed out at 15 decks at one point and that was just too many for me to ever even play consistently so I try to stick to 8-10 decks now. If I do dismantle Lord Windgrace (for example) I will likely try to replace it with something to stay at 8.

[SocorroTortoise]

I don't play as often as I used to, but there was a point where I rarely kept a deck together for longer than a month at a time. Jaya is more or less constant, but everything else is in a constant state of flux. I also never have more than 4 decks complete at once, so building and rebuilding is pretty much the name of the game for me. At my last count, I think I'd played at least one paper game with about 120 generals, though different partner combinations probably screws that up and there are some where I've built 6-8 different decks around the same general. I'll occasionally build decks around particular non-general cards or interactions, play the deck until it happens in game, then pull it apart.

[Gavvin]

Hmmm. Not often. That being said, my Shirei deck became Meren when she came out because it was doing all the same things while adding a second color. Shirei is still in the deck and functions as a secondary commander. My Konda, tribal boardwipe deck was taken over by Avacyn when she came out and my Ghost Council deck was taken over by Ayli when she came out.

Sounds like a lot, but we (my sons and I) have about 25 decks built at any given time and my very first EDH deck (Captain Sisay) is still going strong after 10 years and my son's B/R Wort deck is not far behind.

[Toshi]

I swapped a few commanders in my time.

Oona, Queen of the Fae Dimir Control got split in half into Talrand, Sky Summoner Spellslinger and its Reanimator half was included in Gonti, Lord of Luxury.

Rhys the Redeemed was a sub-par Elfball commander, so Ezuri, Renegade Leader was the necessary swap.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death lent its core to Grenzo, Dungeon Warden.

Odric, Master Tactician turned into Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle - and is the only deck to date where only support cards went from one deck into another.

I am way too invested in tweaking and optimizing decks to ever dismantle a deck for good. I don't see myself switching to some newly released hypebeast either, unless its ability is insanely unique - but not stupidly powerful, like some of the more recent overhyped ones.
I'd say on average i only swap a commander every 2 to 3 years.

[Istarkano]

My decks usually revolve around my commander. So I can't really just change their commanders. Although I usually don't keep more than one deck built for any given color combo (except for mono-blue). Sometimes I will change decks that way. For example, my Neheb, the Eternal deck was dismantled when Valduk came out. Some pieces stayed the same, but a lot changed.

[5colorsrainbow]

While I tend to build decks focus on one commander I do like finding other legends as alternate commanders to switch out if possible just to change things up now and then.

[lyonhaert]

Hypothetically, a couple other black legends could helm my Chainer deck (Erebos or Razaketh for example). I haven't actually tried it, though.

The closest I am to a simple changing out of just the commander is my superfriends deck, where I could easily switch Sliver Queen for Ramos and not need to change anything else, though a small handful of changes to facilitate proliferate would certainly help. The switch is indeed on my To Do list.

The only other switches I can think of are more conceptual. Edric-to-Tetsuko becomes an entirely different deck card-wise but retains the concept of drawing-cards-from-weenie-combat. I'm also in the process of reincarnating my former Ruric Thar stomp-and-punish deck as Nikya.

[Morganelefay]

Jori En, Ruin Diver became Kykar, Wind's Fury as it does exactly what the deck always did but now adds consistent removal to it, and only needed a few small tweaks in order to be where I wanted it to be.

Prime Speaker Zegana has gone through various iterations, at one point having been an Intet, the Dreamer deck. Eventually, the original Zegana deck kinda split up, the counters-matters part having gone into Pir & Toothy and the more controlly bit now being Tatyova, with Zegana having taken on the role of the commander for big fatties that benefit from card draw.

[TheTuna]

Sure did! Angel tribal was my gateway into Commander. I originally built Boros Angels with Gisela, Blade of Goldnight at the helm. About nine months after that, the spoilers for Lyra Dawnbringer dropped. I cut the red and never looked back. I also swapped out Gishath for Zacama, Primal Calamity once he was revealed. Changes are pretty straightforward when it comes to tribal, thankfully.

[BaronCappuccino]

I only have a single Commander deck, a pet deck in Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder. It's my honest attempt to abandon my Spike, and embrace my Johnny/Melvin. Even if WotC prints Endrek Sahr, the Functionally Identical but Strictly Superior, I don't know that I'd swap, but it would have to be something like that to even consider it.

[MuzzleMuffin]

My very first general ever built was Memnarch. Since then I have switched the deck over to the "secret commander system" with Kami of the Crescent Moon (Mochi...uh-huh. Thats his name.) filling the spot as the commander. It's still a dedicated Memdaddy deck but now I don't get targeted so early at GP pods...

While I usually only have 2 decks sleeved at one time, the other being Hua Tuo, Honored Physician, I went through a rather large cycle of mono red decks. It went from:

Bosh, Iron Golem -> Diaochan, Artful Beauty -> Norin the Wary -> Jaya Ballard, Task Mage -> Squee, Goblin Nabob -> not built.

I have a love hate relationship with Mono Red.

[Myllior]

I've changed three of my commanders over the last year, whenever it became apparent that the current commander was no longer an effective choice for how I wanted the deck to run.

Roon of the Hidden Realm began as a flicker-oriented deck that morphed into a more control and toolbox-oriented build over time. Eventually, I realised that I only ever played him when I had literally nothing else to do for a turn cycle; I never wanted to play him. As a result, I removed the flicker support cards entirely and only kept the best that worked efficiently with cards I wanted to run anyway (e.g. Deadeye Navigator, Eldrazi Displacer). The commander slot was given to Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, for the obvious value and control she generates.

Patron of the Orochi became a more straightforward stompy deck with Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, as infinite combos aren't a big part of my playgroup and having a combo piece in the command zone lead to them too often. It retained the big mana element, but retooling the deck away from infinite mana made it better to have a win con in the command zone.

Kefnet the Mindful was recently replaced by Nezahal, Primal Tide as my voltron commander due to playgroup evolution. The main culprit has been a new Nicol Bolas, the Ravager deck, which has a plethora of theft, edict and discard effects, all of which hit Kefnet pretty hard. Moving to the in-built card advantage and advanced evasion of Nezahal is definitely worth the extra mana.

[FoxOfWar]

I do pretty much constant re-toolings, although rarely with just swapping a commander without changing anything else about the deck. There's pretty much always cards that are in the deck because they work with that particular legendary, which are then swapped for stuff that works with the new commander. For a lot of my deck concepts it's also very hard to imagine a commander better fitting for the idea, though I've been wrong before about that.

[madmazda86]

I switched my artifact deck commander from Ramos, Dragon Engine to Breya, Etherium Shaper after really struggling with getting the deck going with the mana base that I could afford. It's much better now having cut the extra colour.

[Vessiliana]

I don't usually change just the general, since the deck is (usually) built around the commander itself. If I want to do something else, I build an entirely new deck.

But it takes a good while for a deck to reach the "safety zone", where it is safe from being gutted for parts if I like something else more. Currently, my number of decks is hovering between 25-30, and probably only 4-5 of them are "safe". (Kynaios and Tiro Enchantress, Edgar Markov Vampires, Lyra Angels, Meren Sacrifice, and Jodah 5-color Angels is trying to break into the zone.)