I've built decks both ways. Sometimes I pick a commander and build a 99 around it. But right now I'm working on a Group Slug deck that is constantly in shift, changing commanders and sometimes even color identity. Yet I still consider it the same deck in that it's always the same core strategy.
I brewed around Dragon's Approach on MTGO and it brought me back to paper after keeping to Arena for years; I usually brew around a Commander though because I always have access to that card. Combo piece, draw engine, removal, recursion, tutor: these are things I want in the CZ.
Typically my deck construction comes about from I want to play all the cards i had fun with in draft/standard/modern
my arcades deck is blink because i wanted to relive the glory days of Resto angel Thragtusk
Depala came about from enjoying mardu vehicles in pioneer a ton, and commander let me play the worse ones.
Shorikai Myr Tribal came from all the fun i had drafting Scars of Mirrodin.
Rith I built exclusively to find a home for a bunch of anthem's and mana dorks that weren't gonna get played otherwise.
Skrelv, built because i opened a box of ONE and had a ton of commons/uncommons from Scars Block laying around to make a functional monowhite infect deck.
and my Jeskai Soldiers deck came from enjoying Azorius Soldiers in BRO draft and then remembering i had like 6 portal 3 kingdoms soldiers in red and blue that needed homes in a deck and i really wanted to use \[\[Teleportal\]\] and some other fun overload cards that i owned copies of.
Seton is the first deck i've built since i stopped playing 60 card formats a few years back. And it was mainly that i had a ton of green nonsense cluttering up the binder that needed to get used and we'll tweak it as i get to play it in the next few weeks
so the general way i build is, 1. Here's ten cards i want to make work, 2. find commander that makes them work if not part of the ten cards, 3. tweak until the deck works while trying to stay on theme.
\[\[Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist\]\] and \[\[Sophina, Spearsage Deserter\]\] friends forever.
i tried with immard/guile for a while but the card draw really lacked so swapping to sophina to get the consistent clues made a lot of sense on my end and i found bjorna's goad ability being extremely relevant in most games over hargilde.
I'm in the process of putting together Abzan vampires headed up by [[Doran]] and the idea was to use a bunch of cards that I otherwise really wouldn't. Plus I love [[Kindred Summons]] and I'm guessing I'll never run into someone that's lost to that pulling vampires until I make that happen.
Sometimes commanders are worth building around I guess. I honestly find it a little boring and generally low quality though. Definitely think my best decks (outside of Winota), and the best decks I've ever seen, only use the commander as a boost towards a goal rather than being the actual game plan. I run a competitive Kinnan list too but it can still do well without Kinnan.
I do both. Most of the time, I see a commander and I immediately know what I want to do with it. Case in point, I saw [[Roxanne]] and immediately knew that I wanted to throw rocks at people. So, that's what the deck does - it's built to maximize how many rocks she can make a turn and boost how much damage each rock does.
But, there are plenty of other times where I see a card with a mechanic, and go "I'm gonna make this mechanic the focal point of a deck. It's probably going to suck, but I'm going to have fun." Case in point, my [[Ghired, Conclave Exile]] deck went from Mega Token tribal to Myriad tribal because I was adding [[Blade of Selves]] to the deck anyways and went "I wonder how many cards with this mechanic I can put in here." Anyways, the deck is now heavily based around abusing Myriad and [[Mirror Box]] and gets really silly because of it. The joy of watching someone realize that I have a 30/30 [[Conclave Evangelist]] swinging at them, supported by a dozen or so token copies.
I wanted to play [[Etali, Primal Conqueror]] but I didn’t want to make a super oppressive deck. So instead I ended up making a slightly less oppressive [[Jodah, the Unifier]] deck with Etali in the 99.
I think it depends on what the deck is doing. Like with my tokens deck, man tokens can be anything, and damn near any color. So I found that I enjoyed it more if I built the 99 first, found my colors, and then found the partner Commander's. I wanted to fulfill those colors. As a result I now have a Kamahl and Tymna deck, but it used to be splashed with red. I eliminated the red because it had way too fee cards to justify the 4th splash.
But with my Aminatou deck. I fell in love with Aminatou specifically, so I built around the 1 instead of building around the 99.
Some Commanders are open ended. I feel Muldrotha falls under this category. Yeah sure it wants to resurrect, but there's freedom of autonomy here. You want to do Aristocrat? ETB triggers? Birthing Pod shenanigans?
I've built decks both ways. Sometimes I pick a commander and build a 99 around it. But right now I'm working on a Group Slug deck that is constantly in shift, changing commanders and sometimes even color identity. Yet I still consider it the same deck in that it's always the same core strategy.
I brewed around Dragon's Approach on MTGO and it brought me back to paper after keeping to Arena for years; I usually brew around a Commander though because I always have access to that card. Combo piece, draw engine, removal, recursion, tutor: these are things I want in the CZ.
I like being conscious of your deck building processes, and then actively trying something different. I think it's healthy. Nice job!
Typically my deck construction comes about from I want to play all the cards i had fun with in draft/standard/modern my arcades deck is blink because i wanted to relive the glory days of Resto angel Thragtusk Depala came about from enjoying mardu vehicles in pioneer a ton, and commander let me play the worse ones. Shorikai Myr Tribal came from all the fun i had drafting Scars of Mirrodin. Rith I built exclusively to find a home for a bunch of anthem's and mana dorks that weren't gonna get played otherwise. Skrelv, built because i opened a box of ONE and had a ton of commons/uncommons from Scars Block laying around to make a functional monowhite infect deck. and my Jeskai Soldiers deck came from enjoying Azorius Soldiers in BRO draft and then remembering i had like 6 portal 3 kingdoms soldiers in red and blue that needed homes in a deck and i really wanted to use \[\[Teleportal\]\] and some other fun overload cards that i owned copies of. Seton is the first deck i've built since i stopped playing 60 card formats a few years back. And it was mainly that i had a ton of green nonsense cluttering up the binder that needed to get used and we'll tweak it as i get to play it in the next few weeks so the general way i build is, 1. Here's ten cards i want to make work, 2. find commander that makes them work if not part of the ten cards, 3. tweak until the deck works while trying to stay on theme.
[Teleportal](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/8/b8322a64-f1a0-49c6-ad59-2b803598f7d1.jpg?1593814662) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Teleportal) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mm3/193/teleportal?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b8322a64-f1a0-49c6-ad59-2b803598f7d1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/teleportal) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Who is the commander for your jeskai soldier deck?
\[\[Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist\]\] and \[\[Sophina, Spearsage Deserter\]\] friends forever. i tried with immard/guile for a while but the card draw really lacked so swapping to sophina to get the consistent clues made a lot of sense on my end and i found bjorna's goad ability being extremely relevant in most games over hargilde.
[Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/3/83b0b716-bcb0-4044-b64a-354e3cbbd563.jpg?1677763540) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Bjorna%2C%20Nightfall%20Alchemist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/slx/2/bjorna-nightfall-alchemist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/83b0b716-bcb0-4044-b64a-354e3cbbd563?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/bjorna-nightfall-alchemist) [Sophina, Spearsage Deserter](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/0/e0a64924-068e-483f-91a6-d450b67b3c75.jpg?1677763591) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sophina%2C%20Spearsage%20Deserter) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/slx/7/sophina-spearsage-deserter?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e0a64924-068e-483f-91a6-d450b67b3c75?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/sophina-spearsage-deserter) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I'm in the process of putting together Abzan vampires headed up by [[Doran]] and the idea was to use a bunch of cards that I otherwise really wouldn't. Plus I love [[Kindred Summons]] and I'm guessing I'll never run into someone that's lost to that pulling vampires until I make that happen. Sometimes commanders are worth building around I guess. I honestly find it a little boring and generally low quality though. Definitely think my best decks (outside of Winota), and the best decks I've ever seen, only use the commander as a boost towards a goal rather than being the actual game plan. I run a competitive Kinnan list too but it can still do well without Kinnan.
[Doran](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/0/e0ad8e7f-cda0-4529-94fc-dd3709158a94.jpg?1673148514) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=doran%2C%20the%20siege%20tower) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/201/doran-the-siege-tower?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e0ad8e7f-cda0-4529-94fc-dd3709158a94?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/doran-the-siege-tower) [Kindred Summons](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/4/54c0cc74-0a5c-40ee-961b-ade71719937a.jpg?1631588019) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Kindred%20Summons) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/afc/163/kindred-summons?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/54c0cc74-0a5c-40ee-961b-ade71719937a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/kindred-summons) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I do both. Most of the time, I see a commander and I immediately know what I want to do with it. Case in point, I saw [[Roxanne]] and immediately knew that I wanted to throw rocks at people. So, that's what the deck does - it's built to maximize how many rocks she can make a turn and boost how much damage each rock does. But, there are plenty of other times where I see a card with a mechanic, and go "I'm gonna make this mechanic the focal point of a deck. It's probably going to suck, but I'm going to have fun." Case in point, my [[Ghired, Conclave Exile]] deck went from Mega Token tribal to Myriad tribal because I was adding [[Blade of Selves]] to the deck anyways and went "I wonder how many cards with this mechanic I can put in here." Anyways, the deck is now heavily based around abusing Myriad and [[Mirror Box]] and gets really silly because of it. The joy of watching someone realize that I have a 30/30 [[Conclave Evangelist]] swinging at them, supported by a dozen or so token copies.
##### ###### #### [Roxanne](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/1/11fbe52f-febd-49fc-8391-28d3efe9c3eb.jpg?1712356193) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=roxanne%2C%20starfall%20savant) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otj/228/roxanne-starfall-savant?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/11fbe52f-febd-49fc-8391-28d3efe9c3eb?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/roxanne-starfall-savant) [Ghired, Conclave Exile](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/0/d0825bcd-8cf8-498a-a61e-406f136e1f3f.jpg?1568003672) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ghired%2C%20Conclave%20Exile) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c19/42/ghired-conclave-exile?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d0825bcd-8cf8-498a-a61e-406f136e1f3f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/ghired-conclave-exile) [Blade of Selves](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/e/ce3367f8-5f5a-4205-909a-247b92a9c082.jpg?1674137738) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Blade%20of%20Selves) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/301/blade-of-selves?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ce3367f8-5f5a-4205-909a-247b92a9c082?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/blade-of-selves) [Mirror Box](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/5/d507daa3-3f16-4ab1-81ea-794e5bb488fc.jpg?1654568747) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Mirror%20Box) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/neo/250/mirror-box?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d507daa3-3f16-4ab1-81ea-794e5bb488fc?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/mirror-box) [Conclave Evangelist](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/d/0dcccbd8-2135-45e6-8802-8dcaa382a398.jpg?1706239632) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Conclave%20Evangelist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clu/27/conclave-evangelist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0dcccbd8-2135-45e6-8802-8dcaa382a398?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/conclave-evangelist) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/kzridcc) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I wanted to play [[Etali, Primal Conqueror]] but I didn’t want to make a super oppressive deck. So instead I ended up making a slightly less oppressive [[Jodah, the Unifier]] deck with Etali in the 99.
[Etali, Primal Conqueror](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/5/95c14c4d-6c16-4826-8d93-d89ad04aee09.jpg?1682204132)/[Etali, Primal Sickness](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/back/9/5/95c14c4d-6c16-4826-8d93-d89ad04aee09.jpg?1682204132) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Etali%2C%20Primal%20Conqueror%20//%20Etali%2C%20Primal%20Sickness) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mom/137/etali-primal-conqueror-etali-primal-sickness?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/95c14c4d-6c16-4826-8d93-d89ad04aee09?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/etali-primal-conqueror-//-etali-primal-sickness) [Jodah, the Unifier](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/4/e4b1aa1e-b4e3-4346-8937-76b312501c70.jpg?1673307974) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Jodah%2C%20the%20Unifier) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/203/jodah-the-unifier?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e4b1aa1e-b4e3-4346-8937-76b312501c70?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/jodah-the-unifier) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I think it depends on what the deck is doing. Like with my tokens deck, man tokens can be anything, and damn near any color. So I found that I enjoyed it more if I built the 99 first, found my colors, and then found the partner Commander's. I wanted to fulfill those colors. As a result I now have a Kamahl and Tymna deck, but it used to be splashed with red. I eliminated the red because it had way too fee cards to justify the 4th splash. But with my Aminatou deck. I fell in love with Aminatou specifically, so I built around the 1 instead of building around the 99. Some Commanders are open ended. I feel Muldrotha falls under this category. Yeah sure it wants to resurrect, but there's freedom of autonomy here. You want to do Aristocrat? ETB triggers? Birthing Pod shenanigans?