Duel Commander is a very varied format with a quickly changing meta. I think the best option for anyone wanting to get into it is to go over the more viable archetypes and playstyles and then try to find cards from your collection or precons that fit those styles. Duel Commander is a one-versus-one format where players pick a legendary creature to act as their commander and build a Singleton 99-card deck that adheres to that commander’s color identity. Outside of this, you can pretty much build your commander deck how you want. But there are so many cards that you have to choose from, what’s the best way to figure out which deck to build?
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Another benefit of playing in 1v1 matches is that it helps build your confidence in gameplay. As you continue to practice and improve your skills, you will better understand your strengths and weaknesses. One-on-one matches offer the perfect environment to experiment with new strategies and tactics while honing your gaming skills. By practicing regularly in these individual duels, you’ll become better prepared for intense team matches.
Getting Started With Duel Commander
Well, next we’ll go through some awesome resources that you’ll want to use to help you build your deck. Welcome to episode two of ‘Let’s play Leviathan’, a 1v1 commander format with 30 starting life, a unique ban list and the option to swap commanders between best of three matches. The Commander format is all about picking your hero and building a deck around them. In this casual format, you choose a legendary creature to serve as your commander and then create the rest of your deck around their color identity and unique abilities.
On occasion a Planeswalker card may say that it can be your Commander. The Workshop maps in CS2 were explicitly designed for 1v1 duels, so they have more advantages than standard maps. For example, Workshop maps are smaller, creating a more dynamic and eventful environment for players. We have a friend article with console commands that you may also find useful, check out the article “What are the most important CS2 Console Commands? Not to be confused with duel commander which is a fanmade gamemode.
All that said, I’d advise you to just go for singles and build your meta mtg decks mostly from scratch if you want to play outside of your personal casual playgroup. This deck, led by Grist, the Hunger Tide, focuses on a midrange toolbox strategy that aims to have answers for almost anything. It also boasts a lot of dork creatures that can simultaneously ensure your commander hits the field early and serve as cannon fodder for its -2 ability. This ability is key to the deck since it can get rid of plenty of the format’s biggest threats.
It’s a steep test of your skill where external factors are limited, and you have no allies. As such, we’re letting you know that we’ve updated our Privacy Policy to reflect the new rule set forth by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Bitzelberg is probably one of the best English-speaking YouTube channels focusing on the format, while Chroniques du Commander also has some amazing French-speaking content. Another great recommendation for French speakers is the Magic Biquette Discord. It was actually founded by Adrien “Oni” Demoget, and Jules “Askeladden” Lestienne is also a mod there.
Real talk: Is Commander worth it with just two players 1vs1?
It’s a trove of resources and info on the format and the largest server dedicated to Duel Commander. The ranger-turned monarch commander maintains tempo, with nearly as many instants as lands, and a small percentage of creatures. With Aragorn, King of Gondor if you stay ahead and keep the monarch crown, you can swiftly take down opponents.
Aragorn’s win conditions are effective cards that require little help other than stopping the opposing player’s stuff. Duel Commander is just like any other format in the sense that it has some archetypes and strategies that can prove stronger in the format’s rules and limitations. Some of the main archetypes you start with include mono-red aggro, white-weenie aggro, land aggro, blue control, and even some combo decks.
They both have formats (with notably different rules and banlists) that could act as a replacement, 1v1 Commander for MTGO and Historic Brawl on MTGA. For the complete and comprehensive rules set, the safest and most updated source will always be the official rules by the committee. They keep the site up to date with announcements at least every two months with any changes, so you should always check this source when in doubt. They’re mostly pretty similar to regular EDH rules with a few notable differences. Duel Commander upholds EDH’s values, so the format is open to everyone who wants to get into it. It keeps a strong focus on fun and personalized decks that don’t have to conform to a meta as strict as the one in 60-card formats.
A lot of EDH staples would prove far from useful in Duel Commander thanks to the differences in gameplay. Politics aren’t an option in duel formats so you should focus on more, well, focused cards. Once your commander is picked, it’s time to start building your deck. Check my community posts and the end of this video to see the full roster and the matches that each deck have been sorted into. Each match is best of three and even if a deck takes the first two games (and therefore wins), we will play a third just for fun. There aren’t any official products focused on Duel Commander since it’s not a sanctioned format.
You also have the option to use the mp_freezetime command to set the duration of the freeze time at the start of each round. Setting the value to 2 seconds allows you to get through rounds faster and maximize gameplay. The Jeskai commander‘s decklist is packed with lots of inexpensive counterspells.
But you can still find Duel Commander tournaments as side events at officially-sanctioned tournaments. As with any other format, you can always hit up your LGS to see if there’s a format-related playgroup. Duel Commander is an adapted rule set that takes Commander from a multiplayer format to 1v1 while still keeping the original essence. After all, what’s broken in a 1v1 context is really different from what’s broken in multiplayer games. One of the most useful resources that exists for Commander players is EDHREC.com. They have a massive database of all of the cards that people are using as their Commanders and in their decks.
One other thing to consider, which is more a rule of multiplayer formats, rather than Commander specifically, is that the player who is going first will draw a card on their first turn. I am very curious about why the 1vs1 format in commander is not getting a real hype. Duel commander, Archon, the two most popular “format” are not getting that many people either on discord or Reddit to debate around decks, bans, strategy etc. I personally think that having a 1 to 1 format leveraging on singleton is amazing for both players and collectors. […] for deckbuilders, people who want to create decks in a wild and open environment. Regular formats place a stronger focus on gameplay than they do on deckbuilding due to a very dense metagame, while Duel Commander’s higher variability opens up more space for deckbuilding.