Cool control commanders and finishers

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Nobody plays control in my meta. Its mostly a playstyle thing - it can be a fine line between 'stopping degenerate stuff' and 'oh look nobody does anything, such fun'. So while every deck usually has a couple of removal spells, I've been looking to try and fill that role as typically control is my favourite play style. I like disrupting things and in particular I like the fact that many forms of control are not that great in commander, so 1-1ing scary threats is a bit of an uphill battle and you have to be strategic about it.

So been wondering what are some good control commanders, and good control finishers for EDH. We typically play without combo so thats out of the picture. When I say good however, I more mean cool and interesting and decently effective as opposed to maximally effective. Like for example, Kess, Dissident Mage is a pretty obvious control commander with rebuying random removal from the graveyard. Running Kess alongside maximally effective removal would be dull, but maybe including some of the jankier removal cards (ie Clash of Titans) could be cool. Ruhan of the Fomori is an example of a possible finisher that is cool, but just not effective enough.

I've currently build a Crosis, the Purger deck for it, but this can obviously been improved because frankly, it's Crosis. I've always wanted to build a deck with the old art Crosis and so went off of that more than because he's actually any good. A 6/6 flying for 6, well, it can end games and maybe you can jank people out with the discard ability, but there are obviously stronger choices. After playing this bad control deck for a bit to ease my playgroup into dealing with more removal than usual, I'm going to be needing a commander and some cool finishers to take the deck to an actually competitive level for our meta.

The win conditions for the deck are currently Mind's Dilation, Lord of the Void, The Scarab God, and Etali, Primal Storm. Maybe a few similar cards. All of these can generate card advantage and either directly or indirectly smash the opponent in the face. While I'm looking for control commanders I'm also looking for people's favorite control finishers too, so if you know other cool cards like these would be awesome if you could name-drop them here!
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

User avatar
not-a-cube
Posts: 88
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Belgium

Post by not-a-cube » 3 years ago

So are you looking for commanders or just card suggestions for a crosis deck?
EDH Decks:
Queen Marchesa
Chainer, Dementia Master
Will Kenrith
Bruna, the fading light

Mimicvat
Posts: 172
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Mimicvat » 3 years ago

Crosis is what I'm making at the moment, but it will eventually become something less bad and more competitive within my playgroup.
Currently building: ww Bruna, the Fading Light (card advantage tribal / reanimator)
Main decks;
r Neheb, Big Red Champion g Yeva's Mono Green Control, b Ayara's Aristocrats rb Greven, Predator Captain the One Punch Man, ugw Derevri, Empirical Tactician Aggro,rwbu Tymna & Kraum's Saboteurs, wbg Kondo & Tymna's Hatebears wugTuvasa's Silver Bullets, urBrudiclad does Brudiclad thingsgubSidisi, Brood Tyrant (lantern control)

User avatar
Mookie
Posts: 3461
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 47
Pronoun: Unlisted
Location: the æthereal plane

Post by Mookie » 3 years ago

If you're running Crosis, the Purger, I'd say that the simplest win condition is already in the command zone. Throw on some haste and a piece of equipment or two and just take opponents out one at a time with commander damage. It's certainly not the fastest win condition, but if you're able to stall out the game and keep your opponents under the control, it's not a bad start.

The next most obvious win condition I'd suggest would be to have some dedicated finishers - Torment of Hailfire and Exsanguinate see a lot of play, but you could also use pretty much any combo in that slot. I'm personally not a fan of stuff like Expropriate and Insurrection, but they can also do the job.

Another option I'd call out is to just include incidental threats in your deck. Sphinx of Uthuun, Etali, Primal Storm, Sepulchral Primordial, and The Scarab God are card advantage machines that also happen to be excellent beaters. Again, if your opponents can't mount an effective defense, they'll die eventually.

Beyond that, there are enchantments like Captive Audience, Mind's Dilation, and Painful Quandary that can generate card advantage over time and apply pressure to your opponents. If you're running Crosis, Megrim effects may also make sense, although at that point I would probably just run Nekusar, the Mindrazer instead. Planeswalkers like Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God and Angrath, the Flame-Chained can also work as finishers, assuming you can protect them.

Anyway, for my Kess deck, my primary finishers are copying Big Dumb Spells over and over - my personal best is resolving four copies of Blatant Thievery, but multiple copies of Sadistic Sacrament or Cruel Ultimatum is also a viable win condition.

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “Commander”