The Deck Portfolio

This being the first Tuesday of the New Year, I thought it'd be great to follow GG's article a little bit by giving our Commander Community one of the tricks I've been using to build my decks.

To my left is a picture I found when I used the world's favorite search engine as a verb to find a picture of something that resembled a stock portfolio. Clearly, this means we're going to talk about business, and probably not something for the casual Commander people out there- but it's not that complicated. Unless you want it to be.

Today's topic is titled, "The Deck Portfolio," because it's about the next level of deckbuilding management. The term I use here is not necessarily a new topic- just a short, concise way to explain a tool I've been using to guide my own deckbuilding for the last year and a half.

WHAT IS THE DECK PORTFOLIO?

The textbook definition is that it's a set of self-imposed, overarching rules which apply to all your Commander decks in order to challenge you in deck design, inhibit game variance, and maximize the possibilities of the format.

I know that's filled with a lot big words, but it's not so difficult to really understand. In talking with other players, the foundations of The Deck Portfolio are natural inclinations we already have. We build singleton decks with singleton cards. Typically, we don't make two decks with matching Commander color identities. We don't make all Voltron decks either. Either would get stale and boring very quickly, for us and our opponents.

I've written about building with restrictions before within the confines of a single deck- removing card types, tribal, etc. Using these qualities, we can form more subtypes to categorize and create different labels and requirements. Doing this will not only help you understand what kinds of decks you have, but also what decks you can create.

MY DECK PORTFOLIO

The best example I can show you is my own portfolio, which I began a year and a half or so ago.

I've included all the decks I'm playing and the ones I'm working on to show you how I design and create themes.

It's pretty straightforward. The items in bold represent characteristics that are Commander related. When I choose Commanders, I really only have four requirements. First, they must not share an identical color identity I already have. Second, they must have a different set symbol than one that currently exists. Third, it must have a workable, usable strategy that I can work with. And obviously, it's gotta be a card I like.

Feel free to click on the finished decks to see those lists.

1. Animar, Soul of Elements
    -R/U/G 
    -Commander
    -Aggro
    -Creatures only
    -Cascade/2-for-1s
    -Horde/Swarm Attack

2. Saffi Eriksdotter

    -G/W (Selesnya)
    -Time Spiral
    -Infinite Combo
    -Card Advantage/Recursion
    -Incremental Combos
    -Sacrifice Outlets
   
3. Glissa, the Traitor
    -B/G (Golgari)
    -Mirrodin Besieged
    -Board Police/Removal Heavy
    -Dollar General/Budget
    -Artifact based
    -No enchantments
    -Graveyard Engine

4. Daxos of Meletis
    -U/W (Azorius)
    -Theros
    -Voltron/Control
    -Attack/Combat Damage triggers
    -Life Gain
    -Playing Other People's Cards

5. Heartless Hidetsugu

    -Red
    -Betrayers of Kamigawa
    -Tempo/Aggro
    -Punisher/Damage
    -General Centric
    -Wheel Effects

6. Yeva, Nature's Herald
    -Green
    -Magic 2013
    -Tempo/Dudes
    -Big Dudes
    -ETB-Driven

7. Braids, Conjurer Adept
    -Blue
    -Planar Chaos
    -Timmy/Control
    -Free Stuff
    -Bounce Spells
    -No Enchantments
    -No Planeswalkers

8. Greel, Mind Raker
    -Black
    -Prophecy
    -Discard Control
    -Creature Reanimate
    -Paying Life as a Resource

9. Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
    -White
    -Nemesis
    -Control
    -Recursion
    -Toolbox
    -Pseudo-Tribal
    -Planeswalkers

10. Tajic, Blade of the Legion(in progress)
    -R/W (Boros)
    -Dragon's Maze
    -"Defensive" Voltron
    -Indestructible
    -Aura/Equipment
    -Tokens?

11. Wydwen, the Biting Gale(in progress)
    -B/U (Dimir)
    -Lorwyn
    -Control
    -Instant-speed
    -Flash/Bounce
    -Faerie Tribal?

12. Lyzolda, the Blood Witch(in progress)
    -B/R (Rakdos)
    -Dissension
    -Card Draw/Attrition

Well, that's all I got for today. Feel free to comment or ask questions if you've got some about The Deck Portfolio or anything else Commander related.

Until next time!

-UL