Commander is an incredible fun format of Magic: The Gathering, but fun isn’t always fair, so in order to keep the frustration out of the room and to avoid mismatched power matchups, this is an easy Power Scale Guide on Commander when playing either casual games or Competitive EDH games.
Casual Play often means having fun with friends at the table or online, showcasing your deck, gameplay, and getting to live the cards interaction that you envisioned in the first place and win a game, or maybe just set the table watch some unplanned player politics taking place and later on laughing about it, but on the Competitive side its all about win certainty, cards and strategies set make the best of every situation, tutors, counterspells, board wipes, value negation, combat attrition, you name it, and Competitive always means expensive though there are cheap options available to get into Competitive EDH.
In this guide we will outline Power Levels from 1 to 10 what are they, classifications and criteria. Going from lower power levels means more casual relaxed gameplay and higher power levels means more optimized or expensive strategies, or combos synergies taking place.
Power Level 1-3
Description: Thematic decks, preconstructed decks, minimal optimization.
Wins through casual combat over long games.
Power level 1 is that deck that isn’t optimized in the slightest maybe just pet cards that a player really likes and wants to have in deck just for the looks and feels of cards, and isn’t strict about strategies being played out, or isn’t fast enough to develop a board state threat for other players to take notice, or just for the sake of meme plays, these could be Jank brews made overnight from a bulk bin that a player put together with what was already available without taking consideration competitive archetypes at all.
From Power level 2-3 we are talking about Preconstructed MTG products readily available that are cheap to get your hands on, sit on a table and play together with friends, these often come with a set strategy or theme gameplay in mind, and win conditions that develop deep into the game, or maybe some thoughtful brews made with good cards but missing some key pieces to transition into some consistent gameplay. In this category its all about having fun, minor competitive reasonings in deckbuilding, you’ll hardly see expensive mana bases or fast decks that develop board state quickly and consistently on each of their games, these game often get deep into late game having plenty of Combat attrition in order to win a game.
Examples for this would be
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A great Casual deck, with a laid back mana base, all of the basic cheap dual lands available just commendable enough to fix your mana, a couple of mana rocks to get you going, with an Equip archetype that isn’t fast enough on the early turns, but definitely want to get Final Fantasy themed creatures on the battlefield who benefit from the Equipments archetype protecting creatures and giving them advantage on board, with a couple of combat swings wins the game onto the mid to late game, so its a fun deck for Universe Beyond enthusiasts getting their hands on themed products bringing them to a table and having fun.
Power Level 4-6
Description: Upgraded precons or cohesive but fair decks.
Well built synergy with budget mana.
Some Tutors or Removal, no infinite combos.
Power level 5-6 is more about consistency, each game beginning with the same level of strategy and attrition in board, a bit more fast gameplan, with more expensive mana base, better dual lands, mana rocks for a consistent mana fixing, so that paying for spells isn’t hard to do specially on the early turns, you usually end up seeing first Sol Ring into Arcane Signet the same turn and on the next one a bigger permanent hitting the battlefield that puts pressure on the early turns, the appearance of tutors fetching engine pieces, that either ditch damage or win conditions steadily and consistently into mid game.
Power Level example:
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Mishra, Eminent one, this deck wants to bring more control and power within the best color options to do so, Grixis, this deck has Counterspell, Removal, Damage dealing capabilities, though the physical form of this deck is quite pricey, but you get the idea, Control at any cost, besides the clear artifact theme on getting to play artifacts from mana rocks, to extra turn sources like Gonti’s Aether Heart, this deck wants ETB effects triggered from artifacts and overall sinergy to remain in play, with competitive cards like, Rhystic Study, Spine of Ish Sah, Thassa’s Oracle, staples of blue commanders or overall control archetypes, board resets with Terisiare’s Devastation, and card considered as combo pieces or game changers
Power Level 7-8
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Description: Highly efficient, focused decks, faster combos, more tutors.
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Consistent Strategy and more expensive deckbuilding.
Removal, Counterspells, Protection, Game Changers present.
These are highly optimized decks, highly efficient decks, focused decks on fast win conditions, faster combos, high priced overall decks, these type of decks win easily from turn 5-7 by either preventing the opponent from developing a board state by removal, counterspells, or protecting their side well enough to put pressure on the opponent to keep them in defense mode. expensive lands and mana rocks are in sight, meta counterspells like Mana Drain, Stifle, Force of Will, even if your opponent is tapped out of mana that player could still counterspell an important spell on your turn.
Example deck: https://moxfield.com/decks/gKBLiSK9ok-vawb2fmBqPQ
Kinnan is a fine examlpe of high end power plays as Brawns meets Brains, you get the best from mana source options even with Elvish Spirit Guide and a starting land in hand you are able to get Kinnan in the battlefield first turn, or either by mana rocks on first turn, as he enables mana sources to add one more mana from your non-land mana producing permanents, this means your could easily cast high costed spell, turn 3-4, while remaining on the counterspell side with Force of Will or Pact of Negation, playing a Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant on turn 3-4 means the opponents is getting counterspelled at least once each turn, or has to do some multiple spells per turn just to get rid of Jin-Gitaxias.
Power Level 9-10
Description: Fully optimized decks using top-tier cards and infinites.
Games end around turns 2–4; heavy use of free interaction and combos.
Cards with multiple interactions, Tutors and Optimal Game Changers.
Power Level 9-10 we are talking about the best of the best, consistent winners,decks that have plenty of combos or game changers, that are really difficult to deal with, expensive cards hard to come by, the best lands Magic has to offer, Consistant small combos or engines that win the game either turn 3 or 4. Strategies consistent or redundant enough for a clear win path, these types deck matches focuses into the transition win from early game to mid game, when a deck is trying to develop board state here comes the opponent with a win condition triggering, these games are packed with good pilots that take their time on stack triggers and treat them diligently and respond to them accordingly.
Example: https://moxfield.com/decks/0z0IejCjr0KmmhYBt8VhCw
A power level 9-10 underdog is K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth, a few mana rocks turn 1 enable K’rrik on turn 2, his ability let’s you pay life instead of black mana for each black mana symbol as phyrexian mana. this turns your life total into mana source, and on each black spell cast he will get +1/+1 counters, and with Lifelink, he is set to recover that life lost in no time, he could enable a turn 3 or 4,
Rule 0 Conversation
Always remember to speak with your pod, about the game power level you wish to experience, either getting your pet cards to see the board and giggle about matching weird cards effects altogether, or from further developing a card engine strategy solid enough to enter the competitive stakes, and get to showoff you are the ultimate winner of competitive play, its healthy to keep a good ruling on the upcoming matchups power levels and keep things fair for everybody involved.