Time for Commander?

Since getting back into Magic, I've been hopping around the different formats. At first, I played strictly Standard, on the grounds that Friday Night Magic events held at the local card stores were only played in the Standard format, as deemed by Wizards of the Coast. And for the most part, this can be quite fun, depending of the metagame of your local card shop. However, I quickly learned that this actually quite an expensive format to keep up with. New cards with constantly changing evaluations can cause prices of singles to fluctuate, and the local metagame can often be flooded with netdecked opponents who care more about winning than self expression through a uniquely created deck; a deck they should call their own.

It was later that I began to delve into other formats and some preconceptions began shattering. The announcement of Modern as the poor man's Eternal format was first on the list. However, this format is for anyone but the poor man. The prices of Fetchlands and Ravnica Shocklands shot through the roof. Alongside an extensive bannings list that killed many of the Extended archetypes upon arrival, there was very little room for unique decks apart from the surviving Zoo, Ramp, and Combo decks. Modern succeeded in usurping Extended. But Wizards continues to update the bannings list and is milking every last dollar out of this format. With Tier 1 decks costing as much as $200 for the Mana Base alone, I wanted no part of this.

Vintage was a no go from the start for obvious reasons: The Power 9. Almost essential to most Vintage viable decks, and with other Vintage staples costing upwards of $300 per card, there was no way I could get into Vintage. Vintage seemed like the format for those who had played Magic since Alpha, or had been around for a lot longer than I had. Perhaps someday...

But Legacy, now there's a gem! I used to believe Legacy was just a minor step up from Vintage, with The Power 9 banned and the clock slowed a bit, but all the expensive cards remaining to play a viable deck. While this is partially true with format staples such as Force of Will and Wasteland, there are actually quite a bit of decks that can be entirely built as well as Tournament viable for roughly $200. Yup, for the Mana Base of a Modern deck, I could actually build (and order) a Legacy deck! And I did! But more on that later...

And last, but not least, there's Commander, or as some of us fondly remember, EDH. A format created by Magic fans that Wizards was smart enough to monopolize on. A game for the Casual Kings. While most other formats' games consist of silent concentration, Commander games sport the most screaming and shouting, laughing and crying, wheeling and dealing. I've spectated many an EDH game, but never have I participated in one, mostly because... I don't have a deck! But all of that could change very shortly.

One of the best things about EDH being such a casual format is the acception of Proxies, namely for Commanders. A Player's Commander is known to all opponent's and is in public zones at all times. As long as you have proof of ownership of an actually printing of your Commander, I see no reason why a Proxy cannot be used in the Command zone and battlefield. So I've devoted quite a bit of time to mulling through Legendary Creatures and finding appropriate art to make tons of Commander Proxies. In fact, I've even made some of the staple Dragon Spirits from the Kamigawa block. The only problem is, I'm having a hard time deciding which Commander to build around! So, which will it be?