MTGNexus

My first Commander deck was mono black, and during these first months I frequently changed my commander as I tried to find the right style and gameplan for the deck: Lim-Dûl, Erebos, Kalitas, Chainer and Kalitas again. I ended up dismantling the deck, however.

The rest of my decks have remained with their original commanders. As someone else said earlier, I think you can switch commanders without altering the deck only if the commander is not an integral part of your strategy, except for some exceptions (like secret commanders). If I couldn't have Nekusar as my commander, I'd certainly break apart my Nekusar deck.

My first commander was Momir Vig, Simic Visionary. Changed the deck to Intet, the Dreamer because I found Momir to be to linear, Almost always the same line of play to combo off. I changed Intet to Riku of Two Reflections because Intet was too expensive to cast and I hadn't really a strategy with that card. ATM switching on and off between Riku and Xenagos, god of revels because I like explosive plays.

Have built Mono-U artifacts but didn't realise the power level of the deck and the hate some commanders will draw. I started with Memnarch, which is a hate magnet. Changed it to Padeem, Consul of Innovation, which is alright and doesn't draw much attention but I wanted something more active so changed it again to Sai, Master Thopterist which is cool with thopters and coat of arms but then Urza, Lord High Artificer came out and I started playing in the Urza block so he had to be my commander.

I've only swapped out a commander once - specifically, swapping Sisters of Stone Death out for Tasigur, the Golden Fang, who ended up being an almost-strictly-better ramp general. The only other card that I needed to swap out was Infiltration Lens - everything else worked fine with Tasigur as-is.

I tried swapping out Teysa, Orzhov Scion for Regna, the Redeemer and Krav, the Unredeemed once, but it became clear after playing the deck a few times that doing so would require substantially more modifications that I was willing to put in.

...I would say that most of the time, I'm open to trying new commanders if the feel like a good fit, but most of my decks are built around the commander enough that swapping them out would require changing around 20 cards (a third of the spells), at which point I feel like I should just make a new deck.

My Infernal Kirin deck could change from disruptive playstyle to Iname, Death Aspect (reanimate), Kyoki, Sanity's Eclipse (control), Kagemaro, First to Suffer (removal), or Seizan, Perverter of Truth (punisher), depending on the decks my opponents are playing.

I think I've only done this once, and it was Gisa and Geralf for Grimgrin, Corpse-Born. Grimgrin's still in the deck, though.

I find myself retiring one deck and making another that might be similar colors / concept but I never really consider it changing my commander because I feel like every commander should be built fundamentally different assuming you aren't taking literally one goodstuff commander and inserting another.

I change decks faster than I use new generals lol.

I've thought about having backups for a new experience, but usually I tool the deck to run the commander I choose. I don't think I've done any straight up switches, although right now I'm testing between Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow and Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign and the cards have to be swapped often. I don't know if that counts or not.

My first EDH deck was Razia, Boros Archangel, and I ran Lightning Bolt in it. Good times XD

I'm actually going the opposite route right now. My next deck plan is to make a new zombie tribal list for The Scarab God while still maintaining my older combo/creature value deck.

I usually only dismantle a commander if I no longer have fun playing it. I don't always do a direct 1 for `1 switch on commanders. I will use the dismantled old lists and put them into other decks though.

The most valuable/transferable part of any EDH list tends to be the lands in a big way.

Switch away!