In General: Journey to the Center of the Deck

Welcome back Zoners, it's me Grandpa Growth. The last few weeks of my articles have been building up to the idea of centralization. If you missed the previous weeks I would suggest looking back a few pages to give them a read, but I'll give you the short version here. The Modern metagame is controlled by the use of the banlist. Because it is driven by competitive optimizers, the best deck in the format will always become the most popular and the other decks will either be trying to beat or ignore the best deck. Commander's metagame is more open because it isn't driven through competition. Instead it is driven by fashion. What is popular feeds what is played instead of the strongest decks BECOMING popular. I gave the example that Nekusar, the Mindrazer decks are very popular in my local Commander metagame right now, despite being mediocre at best in terms of performance. That discussion of fashion extends down to the single card level. That is what we are going to be discussing today. How decks become centralized through repetitive copying of information.

Centralization

Centralization is the idea that a deck contains what you would expect it to. The obvious stuff. The popular stuff. This is in opposition to the idea of optomization which would dictate you only include the best possible cards for your deck so that it will win more. This is a result of two things: the complexity of the format and the sources of information. Let's break these down further.

Complexity - Commander is a difficult format to break into at a high level. Quality decks are very expensive and often full of old cards that may not be readily available like Dual Lands. Many times it is difficult to know where to start. 99 unique cards can sometimes be a stretch of the imagination if you are new to the format. You need to have a working knowledge of older sets. Be able to recognize cards that have older iterations or functional equivalents with different names. It is also important to know what decks are popular and what the centralized version of those decks look like. Match-ups play an important part in 1v1 Commander strategy. Knowing what cards are important to in a particular archetype is critical to victory. Are you playing against a Rafiq of the Many deck? You need to know what Finest Hour does.

Sources of Information - So we established that Commander requires a huge pool of knowledge to be good at. It can, at times, be a more wide open Legacy. So where do you go to learn all of this stuff? Most people turn to the internet when they lack experience or information in/on a particular thing. This isn't bad, it is a great place to start and it is certainly faster and cheaper than gaining the experience yourself. However there is a downside. Information propagates very quickly on the web, even false information. People often take information for granted because they "read it somewhere" or "so-and-so said it". Consulting other decklists online and examining them for common cards or packages of cards is a quick way to fill up your deck list with reasonable card choices without having to know anything about the archetype you are building. This is how centralization happens. And bear in mind it does not necessarily contribute to optimization.

Now, An Example 

Many Commander players will recognize Momir Vig as a common deck. It has many strengths and allows you to play a powerful color combination full of high value threats and cheap disruption. It also gives you a repeatable tutoring effect, which is powerful AND fun to play with. I am going to rattle off a big list of cards that I would expect to be in a Combo Vig List. You can't see me while I am writing this, but I assure you of two things: I am doing this all from memory and it is only going to take about three minutes.

Lands:

Gaea’s Cradle

Misty Rain Forest

Some other fetchlands

Breeding pool

Tropical island

Alchemist’s refuge

Flooded Grove

Simic growth chamber

Wasteland

Strip mine

Maze of ith

Yavimaya hollow

Academy ruins

Riptide lab

Winding canyons

Tectonic edge

Temple of the False God

Artifacts:

Sol Ring

Cloudstone Curio

Some other mana

Possibly Top

Possibly Caged Sun

Enchantments:

Heartbeat of Spring

Opposition

Equilibrium

Aluren

Possibly Earthcraft

Instants/Sorceries:

Intuition

Hinder

Spell Crumple

Void Slime

Force of Will

Upheaval

Cryptic Command

Cultivate

Kodama’s Reach

Voidslime

Fact or Fiction

Beast within

Pongify

Counterspell

Planeswalkers:

Jace(s)

Garruk(s)

Tamiyo

Creatures:

Cloud of Faeries

Teferi

Sower of Temptation

Venser

Phyrexian Metamorph

Solemn Simulacrum

Duplicant

Aether Adept

Vendilion Clique

Sakura-Tribe Elder

Loaming Shaman

Wall of Blossoms

Coiling Oracle

Trygon Predator

Mystic Snake

Winged Coatl

Eternal Witness

Terrastodon

Avenger of Zendikar

Craterhoof Behemoth

Seedborn Muse

Acidic Slime

Viridian Shaman

Indrik Stomphowler

Elvish Visionary

Fathom Mage

Progenitor Mimic

Prime Speaker Zegana

Oracle of Mul Daya

Joraga Treespeaker

Courser of Kruphix

maybe Magus of the Future, but let's stop here for now. There are probably a dozen of more obvious things that I forget, but you get the point. These are very common cards in the archetype. You might even say that this is a list of the archetype's staples. 

There are some other considerations that I would be able to see after the first game as well. For example, if I saw a Snow-covered basic land I would assume Realms Uncharted. If I saw a second one, I would assume Scrying Sheets. If I saw an Artifact Land, I would assume Trinket Mage, and thus confirming the Sensei's Divining Top and likely a Wayfarer's Bauble and/or Expedition Map.

Now, to be clear: This ISN'T a deck list. I would not advise loading this up and playing it, not even for the fact that it doesn't have the correct number of cards. This is an example, a thought experiment if you will. Thinking about the centralized version of a list will both help you think about what cards you want in deck building, but also within the confines of the game. You will be able to think strategically and predict what cards your opponent has much more accurately if you can infer that a fairly large portion of their deck is essentially public domain. When you're fumbling in the dark, combo Vig can be a very tough deck to beat. You have to compete against a series of high-value, early-game plays and as soon as you are about to stabilize you suddenly die to the combo. However, if you know ahead of time what the opponent's win conditions are, you can save your removal and disruption for the correct pieces. If you stifle the combo in Combo Vig, now they are left with a big pile of cards that doesn't necessarily accomplish a whole lot. 

Your homework for this week is to look across the table and ASSUME what is in your opponent's deck. Draw upon all your knowledge. All your experience. Start making a list in your mind. Ask yourself what is in his deck BEFORE YOU EVEN SEE HIS DECK. 20-30 cards could be considered Format Staples that are likely to be found in EVERY deck, so you should know, right off the bat, about a significant portion of his cards. Prepare for them. Once you see his Commander, you should have a pretty good idea about another 30 or so cards just based on the colors and archetype he is playing. So that is that. Centralization. Use it to your advantage. See you guys next week.

-GG