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Magic: The Gathering has plenty of different ways to enjoy the game. There are a plethora of formats to choose from with vastly different rules and card legality. Some enjoy traditional one-on-one aspects, while others enjoy the multiplayer and social angles of Commander (also known as EDH).
Commander decks are built with 99 cards and a commander that determines what cards you can play in your deck. All the 99 cards must match the color of your commander's color identity. Games are often played with four players but can be played with more or less. Commander is generally a more casual format, but there is a level above that, cEDH.
What Is cEDH?
The "c" in cEDH stands for competitive. Competitive Commander follows the same rules as regular Commander, but decks are built to be as powerful as they can be. Things such as threat assessment become much more important in competitive Commander as, usually, anyone can win the game at any point.
CEDH pushes decks to their absolute limits, optimized to their highest potential. While traditional EDH is more about having fun, cEDH is more about winning. It is a format that is great for those who have more fun in tough matches and enjoy the competitive aspects of Magic.
What Cards Are Banned In cEDH?
CEDH follows the same rules as regular EDH - and that includes the banlist. All cards banned in Commander are banned in Competitive Commander and the two do not have separate banlists. Despite cEDH often being considered its own format, it ultimately is still Commander - just under a competitive lens.
The following cards are banned in Commander, along with all the cards banned in all formats for referring to ante, having the Conspiracy card type, and cards with offensive imagery that were removed from all sanction formats.
Ancestral Recall | Mox Emerald | Balance | Mox Jet | Biorhythm |
Mox Pearl | Black Lotus | Mox Ruby | Braids, Cabal Minion | Mox Sapphire |
Channel | Panoptic Mirror | Chaos Orb | Paradox Engine | Coalition Victory |
Primeval Titan | Emrakul, The Aeons Torn | Prophet Of Kruphix | Erayo, Soratami Ascendant | Recurring Nightmare |
Falling Star | Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary | Fastbond | Shahrazad | Flash |
Sway Of The Stars | Gifts Ungiven | Sundering Titan | Golos, Tireless Pilgrim | Sylvan Primordial |
Griselbrand | Time Vault | Hullbreacher | Time Walk | Iona, Shield Of Emeria |
Tinker | Karakas | Tolarian Academy | Leovold, Emissary Of Trest | Trade Secrets |
Library Of Alexandria | Upheveal | Limited Resources | Yawgmoth's Bargain | Lutri, The Spellchaser |
What Makes A cEDH Commander?
Not every commander has the strength to be cEDH playable. The format can be ruthless when it comes to power level, so only a handful of commanders make the cut to be a good pick for cEDH. These Commanders need to have a powerful effect or give you the options to play powerful cards in your deck due to their color identity.
The best commanders for cEDH generally have partner - meaning you can play two commanders if they both have partner. There are multiple commanders that have partner that have two colors, immediately giving you access to two colors in your deck's color identity. When you pair it with another two-color partner commander you get four colors to work with.
The most played partner commanders for cEDH for this reason are Thrasios, Triton Heo (green/blue), Kraum, Ludevi'c Opus (red/blue), and Tyma The Weaver (black/white).
Although partner commanders are strong, they aren't the only viable commanders in cEDH. Commanders that are combo enablers are also fantastic choices. Color identity is less important for these, as the commanders' abilities make up for this lack of versatility that partner commanders provide.
Examples of combo commanders include Winota, Joiner Of Forces, and Korvold, Fae-Cursed King. These all have effects that drastically push your card advantage and give you combo potential to win the game off of their effects. Even if a commander is mono-colored like K'rrik, Son Of Yawgmoth and Urza, Lord High Artificer, they enable combos where this downside does not matter because their effects are game-winning.
The last group of cEDH-viable commanders is five color ones. By having access to all five colors, you get access to the best cards of every color. Five-color commanders generally have solid effects in their own right to make it that much easier to build incredible decks with them at the lead. Examples of strong five-color commanders are Najeela, The Blade-Blossom, Codie, Vociferous Codex, and Kenrith, The Returned King. These all act as either combo pieces to help your deck, or simply give you effects to help push advantage further.
What Makes A Card cEDH Viable?
There is a giant card pool of Magic cards that constantly grows. However, only a select handful tend to make it into the cEDH sphere. cEDH is an incredibly fast format and it's not uncommon for games to end in just a few turns.
Due to how fast cEDH goes, cards that are free to cast or very cheap to play are some of the best. Fierce Guardianship and Force Of Will are staples of any deck that can play blue as you have access to free counterspells. If a card only costs one mana and interrupts the opponent, it fits right into cEDH decks. Examples include Swan Song, Silence, and Swords To Plowshares.
Blue is one of the best colors in cEDH so even targeted blue-hate cards like Pyroblast, Veil Of Summer, and Red Elemental Blast see play in the format despite not working against every deck.
Mana rocks that cost zero mana or one mana are also widely played in the format. Since cEDH wants to get to its win conditions as fast as possible, creating as many mana sources as possible plays into that. Cards like Mana Crypt, Jeweled Lotus, and Mana Vault all see play for how much mana they give you even if you can't constantly re-use it.
The last handful of cards - and arguably the most important for cEDH - are tutors. Tutors are cards that search for specific cards directly from your library. The best of them occur at instant speed and only cost one or two mana. Black tutors, such as Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor, are among the best as they can add any card from your library. Other powerful tutors like Enlightened Tutor and Mystical Tutor are still solid, but can only look for specific card types instead.
You can use instant speed tutors right when your turn starts before you draw. Since most tutors put the card on top of your library, this guarantees you draw the card to get use out of it immediately.
How To Win cEDH Games
CEDH is a format where combos reign supreme. As such, most cEDH decks run multiple infinite combos in them that spiral into a game win. Every color pairing has combos to reach, and since you play as many tutors as possible, these are often getting your combo pieces out from your library instead of relying on just drawing them to make decks very consistent.
It is vital to make sure you have protection for your combo pieces before you commit to them. Even someone being completely tapped out does not mean they can't respond due to the amount of free-to-cast spells that are played.
The most common (and easiest) to accomplish infinite combo is utilizing Thassa's Oracle instant-win condition by combining it with Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact to get rid of your entire library to make sure Thassa's Oracle's condition is meant.
Generally, most combos start by creating an infinite amount of mana to play as many cards as you want. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is with Isochron Scepter imprinted with Dramatic Reversal, which creates infinite mana from all of your mana rocks. This can even be combined with cards that cause burn damage when tapped to cause infinite damage.
Another infinite damage loop is Exquisite Blood combined with Vito, Thorn Of The Dusk Rose or Sanguine Bond, which gives you infinite life while burning your opponent's for infinite damage.
There are two different ways to accomplish your main combos. One is turboing to your pieces to get them as fast as possible and play the combo before your opponents have enough resources to interact with it. The other way is by utilizing powerful Stax pieces that shut down your opponents from playing their deck until you get to your combo.
Where To Play cEDH
At all the places you can play traditional EDH, odds are you can play cEDH there as well. You can try your hand at your local game stores and see if there is a community for cEDH there. Not every store encourages cEDH levels at their events, but there might be players who enjoy amping up the power levels in their own dedicated games.
Like regular commander, talking about the power level of your decks to make sure everyone has even footing before you start playing is important. This is where you can see if anyone is interested in a cEDH-level game.
If none of your local stores have a community for cEDH, you can try your hand at Spelltable - which utilizes webcams to play with others over the internet. You can make a note on your lobby that you are seeking cEDH games or search for others that are doing the same. Commander is the most popular format played on Spelltable, so finding a game there is the easiest.
If you can't play on paper, Commander is also available on Magic: The Gathering Online. There is the option to put notes in the lobby so you can search for games where cEDH power levels are requested or create your own room to request the same.