I Don't Understand Commander

[Thomas David Baker]

OK, so there's a lot of Commander at TGC these days and my decks are in the US.
So I'm putting something together to play.
But every deck I try leads me to these problems:

1. If I put in all the best cards in my Commander's colors my deck will have almost no identity whatsoever.
2. If I pick a good general and play synergetic cards my deck will be completely known when I sit down.
3. If I play suboptimal cards everyone else will play Sol Ring and Mana Crypt and Coalition Relic and the best cards in their general's colors and I will just be sitting there with a weak deck doing not very much.

Given all that do you think I should make:

A. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, infinite sac with Blasting Station, Triskelion, Persist creatures, sweepers and comes into play dudes.
B. UR Random. Chance Encounter, Krark's Thumb, Scrambleverse, Confusion in the ranks many other stupid cards. Very very few Commander staples. Possibly hilarious, possibly annoying. Definitely bad.
C. Teneb, the Harvester based around setting up a Life from the Loam engine and maybe Astral Slide.

Or something else?

Some questions for experienced Commanderers:

i. How many answers do I need like Oblivion Ring, Putrefy, Mortify, etc. Will I just not have any fun if I don't have these things and try and stay away from the staples?
ii. How may sweepers do I need?
iii. Any advice on manabase? How many sources of a color do I need, etc.? Any rules of thumb?

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Type 4 (unlimited mana, 1 spell a turn limit) is actually a pretty slow format too.

I used to have a stack that was played a fair bit, but enthusiasm for it dried up pretty quickly, and we reverted to just playing off the top of a single cube stack, with the 1 spell a turn limit removed. Just as swingy but games were much faster paced.

[Kieran Symington]

Maybe what you want isn't even Magic. Maybe instead of trying to find a format that works you should just invent a completely new game. I'll help by playtesting then heaping scorn on all your ideas. Actually, that would be the best game ever...

[Thomas David Baker]

No, the sad facts are that I love Magic ridiculously much and don't play enough ("there is no such thing as enough Magic" as my friend Jess says, or is that me?)  I just don't like the weird multiplayer terribleness that is EDH.

In actual fact I wish every single person at the games club was assigned three sets from the history of Magic from which they have to make a 60 card deck (you can use any basic lands if you happen to get three sets without basic lands) using the banned list from Legacy.  Everyone would whip out their Random Block Deck between rounds or before drafts or online on Cockatrice or whatever and DT could show the league table.

Taking it a bit further I'd allow players that play a lot but lose to add another randomly assigned set to their pool after a couple of weeks and iterate until someone has 158 wins with four-set White Weenie and some other player has a full Ad Nauseam Tendrils Legacy deck and is racing up the charts.  There could be some provision to change your deck weekly (within your sets) and maybe the option to say "these sets suck" and start again with three random sets.  It would be awesome.

By the way Alpha-Darksteel-Time Spiral Mono B with Dark Ritual, Nether Traitor and Sword of Fire and Ice is better than Worldwake-Champions of Kamigawa-Morningtide UG Jace Ramp with Gifts Ungiven, Vendilion Clique and Avenger of Zendikar - should have gone UB, probably.

Plus we still have to design our own cube!

[Kieran Symington]

One day that player-designed cube will happen. Well, provided more than three people ever want to do it. Maybe I could increase interest by promising fabulous prizes for the best designs...

[Dan Barrett]

Tabled it! and the "really good sideboard card" cycle were amazing. Also the Bernstein "cascade. twice." card.

[Simon O'Keeffe]

I found the card file that had all my designs in it for the first "You Make the Cube". There were plenty in there and some that didn't make the cut that I would like to see next time round.

I think it is even doable with just 3 or 4 designers, I'm sure we could drum up the players. Having around 100 cards to design also gives you a bit more room to introduce a theme/mechanic that you can give enough cards to support.

Best we take it to a new thread I think.