cEDH is where the best of the best decks go to compete. If you want to play something fun and casual, try a lower bracket level; cEDH is all about playing to win. It’s the format that most Commander tournaments are run in, and it’s not uncommon for games to end as quickly as they begin. This article will be looking into the cEDH Metagame state, what decks have a high conversion rate, what decks are popular, and what decks are winning.
Note: Only events that had a tournament size of 50+ and a minimum of 20+ entries will be counted for the purposes of this article.
The Most Popular Decks
These decks are the most popular ones, and even though they aren’t necessarily the decks with the highest win rate, they are the most popular ones. The cEDH Metagame state is quite healthy, with no deck taking up more than about 9% of the metagame share. In many cases, due to the volume of these decks, they often have the highest number of Top Cut appearances too.
The Top 4
The most popular deck by a significant amount is Kraum, Ludevic's Opus and Tymna the Weaver. It provides the most variety in cards outside of WUBRG commanders, and lets you play all the best tools that cEDH has to offer. While Green is lacking, you can easily get by without it, largely because of how good Black and Blue are in cEDH. You can do just about everything you want with these two commanders, hence their popularity.
Just behind them is Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy, the most popular non-partner commander. The deck is a combo machine and can sneeze out infinite mana with ease. That is a part of the draw of the deck. You can learn it relatively fast and be able to pilot it. You often have a lot of control and can dictate what happens in the game thanks to how much mana the deck can make and how many counterspells you have access to.
Interested in Kinnan? Then check out our complete guide to cEDH Kinnan this way!
Rounding out the top 4 has Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh in the commander zone with different commanders. When paired with Thrasios, Triton Hero, it takes advantage of having a combo enabler in the commander zone as well as solid colors. Meanwhile, when paired with Silas Renn, Seeker Adept, it’s more of a Midrange/Control deck. Grixis is the best color pairing in cEDH. Even though you nearly never cast Renn, you play it because enabling Grixis colors is just that good. The benefit from playing these two instead of a regular Grixis commander is having a zero-cost commander. This turns on free spells when you control a commander, as well as a creature to sacrifice early for value.
Rounding Out the Top 10
The most popular WUBRG commander is Sisay, Weatherlight Captain. It turns out, having a tutor in the command zone is very good, and the stats show why. With how easy it is to make infinite mana, the world is your oyster, hence Sisay’s popularity. The best deck that isn’t running Red is Thrasios, Triton Hero partnered with Tymna the Weaver. These partner commanders make for a very strong Midrange commander, capable of getting to combos quickly and balancing being both a turbo combo deck as well as a deck capable of playing the long game. By going down to Mardu and replacing Thrasios with Dargo, the Shipwrecker, you get a turbo deck that can win out of the command zone and still be able to pivot into a Midrange strategy.
The final decks in the top 10 most popular decks are all only two colors. Two of them are very similar and in the same color: Ral, Monsoon Mage and Vivi Ornitier. Both decks are turbo Izzet Storm decks, casting a ton of spells and burning opponents out of the game (or milling them out). The last one is Etali, Primal Conqueror. Even though it’s not the most meta deck, it is the 9th most popular one. It’s one of the easiest cEDH decks to pilot, since it boils down to “cast your commander and play with whatever you’re dealt.”
Conversion Rate
For the unfamiliar, a deck’s conversion rate looks at how many decks got entered into a tournament, and what percentage make it into the top cut. For example, if 10 people enter with the same deck, and 2 of those make Top Cut, then the deck would have a 20% conversion rate. Often, these decks are less played, so even though they aren’t as popular as other choices, they have shown success when they are entered into tournaments, even if they aren’t entered into too many. Regardless of popularity, these decks are still solid, and have the results to back up their usage.
The Top 4
The deck with the best conversion rate is Oswald Fiddlebender. Mono White isn’t a color often looked at when it comes to cEDH, but Oswald is what most people look at if they decide to play Mono White. Tutoring in the command zone is very good, especially when you can tutor for artifacts. Artifacts make up many of the best permanents in the format, so having a toolbox deck lets you play reactive instead of proactive. Despite not having a large number of appearances in the metagame (making up only .11% of it), its conversion rate is nearly 50%.
While it hasn’t won an event within the last year, Gyruda, Doom of Depths still has the second-best conversion rate at 33.33%. The deck takes advantage of Gyruda’s effect to dig through your deck quickly to find your combo creatures. You never actually have to cast your commander, as you can just naturally draw your combos instead of needing to dig for them.
While Dargo, the Shipwrecker is often paired with Tymna the Weaver, but the one with the best conversion rate partners with Reyhan, Last of the Abzan. It sacrifices White in favor of Green for more creature tutors to get to your game-ending combos quicker instead of using White to protect your combos. The WUBURG deck with the best conversion rate is Esika, God of the Tree, acting as a Midrange deck that can pivot into turbo when
The Bottom of the Top Cut
The deck with the highest conversion rate at 30.17% and over 30 Top Cut appearances is Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., which has taken a niche among Midrange WUBRG commanders. The two decks with higher top cut numbers (but lower conversion rate) are Thrasios, Triton Hero partnered with Vial Smasher the Fierce and Rowan, Scion of War. Rowan has the highest Top Cut appearances among the top 10 conversion rates.
In both cPDH and cEDH, the pairing of Erinis, Gloom Stalker and Street Urchin puts up results. Thanks to Street Urchin, you can remove any creature for just one mana. This allows for easy ways to cut off combos, all while not dedicating much mana to setup. It’s a deck that plays a bit more slowly, widdling down resources while building up your own board state. Though it’s not largely popular, it sports a nearly 30% conversion rate. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Kykar, Wind's Fury plays fast. It’s a storm deck that self-replaces mana spent for quick victories. While it doesn’t have a ton of Top Cut appearances, when it shows up, it often converts.
Rounding out the last of the top 10 is Sami, Wildcat Captain. It’s a new(er) toy, and giving spells affinity for artifacts is great. cEDH has plenty of powerful artifacts (especially in Boros). It does take a bit to actually cast your commander, but once it’s on the battlefield, your spells are close to being free to cast. It’s a slow start into a big payoff. This is especially true since your main ways to ramp into it are artifacts as well.
Top Win Rates
Win Rates refer to decks that have the highest ratios of wins in pods. They’re not necessarily the best-performing decks at winning tournaments. Instead, they are the decks that tend to win often. It is important to note that popular decks tend to have a lower win rate because of how many are played at an event. Since so many people play them, a lot of players will lose with them too.
The Winningest of Decks
The deck with the highest win rate by a large margin is Oswald Fiddlebender. Even though it might not be the strongest cEDH deck, thanks to its effect, it has a lot of utility. Tutoring is very good, especially when you can tutor for answers to just about every kind of deck. It can struggle to close out games, but can certainly succeed in stalling others out until you assemble a win condition. This is why it performs so well.
The only partner commanders in the top four is the pairing of Halana, Kessig Ranger and Tymna the Weaver. It’s a bit of an unorthodox pairing, but it does perform very well when it does show up. Having two different kinds of value in draw power and removal in the command zone is great. That’s why it has such a good win rate, there are a lot of recovery and stall tools in the deck.
The decks with the highest win rates tend to be ones focused around artifacts. Rounding out the top 4 are Jhoira, Ageless Innovator and Arcum Dagsson. The latter shares a lot of similarities with Oswald, being a toolbox deck capable of tutoring for any artifact you might need. The only difference is it’s Mono Blue instead of Mono White. Meanwhile, Jhoira lets you stick artifacts onto the battlefield for free and is able to play around most counterspells since they’re not cast.
The Next 6
Often, win rates and conversion rates go hand in hand. All of Dargo, the Shipwrecker + Reyhan, Last of the Abzan, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Sami, Wildcat Captain, and Rowan, Scion of War are in the top 10 of both. These decks have proven to be consistent, even if they are far from the most popular deck choices.
The last two are both Mono-Colored commanders: Gwenom, Remorseless and The Cabbage Merchant. The Cabbage Merchant is a great cEDH card, and is a ramp commander that can generate a ton of mana quickly to turbo out its in conditions. Meanwhile, Gwenom, Remorseless digs through your deck and uses your life as a way to cast a ton of spells in one turn. Bolas's Citadel is a very strong card, so what’s stronger than being able to play it in the command zone? It’s a tad slower, and while it doesn’t have a ton of tournament appearances, it still has a very strong win rate.
In Conclusion
The cEDH Metagame State is in a pretty great place. There is a large variety of viable decks that belong to every kind of playstyle. With every new set, a new cEDH commander tends to come along with it. Be it Turbo, Control, or even Midrange, there is something for you. Thanks to the many new toys in Commander, there are a lot of new options for cEDH decks to try out. In some cases, they boosted existing archetypes, and in others, they created entirely new decks. With all the tools available now, there has never been a better time to try cEDH. It’s a very proxy-friendly format due to how expensive the staples are (especially Reserved List cards).
If you see a deck you love, try it out! There are a ton of different options, and no local metagame is quite the same. This article looked at the “macro” of the cEDH world. However, some metas are more Control-focused, while others may be all about Turbo. Build the deck that best plays into your local meta.
If you’re new to the Commander tournament sphere, you can learn more about it in our overview of what to expect in a Commander tournament.
