Also it is very important to note that Power Level does not necessarily equate to Deck Building Skill, as purposely building low level decks is a true test of talent. In a table with 4 decks, two with PL 5 and two with PL 6, they could compete, although the PL 6 has a small advantage. Let’s assume you have a rough draft of a Commander deck that is cut down to 100 and you’ve goldfished a few hands to see how it feels.
Commander Power Levels: What do they Mean?
These numerical scales have strengths and weaknesses, and can be a real help to players who are trying to figure out where their decks fall in power when compared to other decks. Starting your games with a pod of roughly equal decks is an important part of trying to have games where everyone starts with a roughly equal chance of winning. Today is the first in what I expect to be a series of columns exploring the format of Commander in a broader way than in my usual weekly deck techs. I’m going to start out with one of the most central and controversial topics in EDH – power levels.
If you’re that good a player and deck-builder you ought to be able to brew up a deck that you’ll have a hard time winning with, but which will still be interesting and fun for you to play. A deck that can occasionally have a game where it feels like a cEDH deck is probably just a high powered deck, but one might describe it as a “fringe” cEDH deck. That just means that it lives in that liminal area between the high powered and cEDH tiers. It’s going to trounce low and mid-powered decks, will do well against high powered decks, but might see very little success against top tier cEDH decks. You may not want to hit your wincon so quickly that nobody else had fun in the game.
Tier vs. Power Level
These cards are often sought after in both casual and competitive play due to their ability to swing the momentum of a match in favor of mtg card the player who wields them. However, their power comes with a price, as opponents must devise strategies to counteract their effects and mitigate their impact on the game. The synergy between cards within a deck also contributes to their overall power level.
Most Commander players want games where everyone has a roughly equal chance of winning. It might occasionally be fun to see if you can beat a much stronger or faster deck, but the average player really does want to win their “fair share” of games. Power levels can be a helpful way to compare the relative power of your deck to those of your opponents. When used correctly, this ranking system’s goal is to create games that are more fun for everyone because each deck involved has around the same chance of winning and nobody steamrolls the competition. That said, not everyone has the exact same thoughts on what each power-level means, so it might still be worth having a rule 0 discussion with your playgroup to make sure everyone is on the same page. A level 2 deck is slightly more cohesive than a level 1 deck but still lacks a strong winning strategy.
You’ll usually either have a card to play or a means of responding to your opponents as soon as you take your first turn. For homebrew decks, these would be decks that have an idea of what they want to do and ways to do it but suffer from having a poor mana base. You usually see budget options of stronger cards, like a Darksteel Colossus instead of a Blightsteel Colossus, or a Tranquil Cove instead of a Hallowed Fountain.
I consider it the go-to instrument for gauging power levels of EDH decks today. Each power level can reasonable play with other adjacent power levels, as well as any other deck in the same group. For example a 7 can play with a 6 & 8 because they’re adjacent, as well as a 5 because it’s in the same group, but not with a 9. If I draw one of the significant upgrades, like Anointed Procession, that I added to the deck, preconstructed decks generally won’t be able to stand up to it (as long as they don’t remove it immediately). That said, I also added a lot of fun cards, like the new Starscream, Power Hungry, simply because I like the idea of making other people Monarchs. Because not all the cards added are strictly for power level reasons, it gets a lower grade on the power level scale than a more optimized Urza deck.
If you have more fun building decks specifically around themes or cards that you love, don’t worry if it’s technically a four, sometimes that’s the correct number to build for. You need to play a deck a good number of times to make an accurate determination based on turncount. Everyone has started a game with a lucky hand that sets them up for an early win, and everyone has kept a three-land hand just to never draw another land for five or more turns.
Players should prioritize cards with powerful effects, efficient mana costs, and versatile abilities that align with their deck’s strategy. Additionally, considering the current meta-game and anticipating potential matchups can help players select Power Level 7 cards that are well-positioned in the competitive landscape. At the lowest levels of play, I think it’s fair to say that there is an inverse expectation. You are there to have fun, and if you build with a goal of consistently winning over just doing goofy things and having fun, you may run into trouble. Low powered decks take longer to play their goofy cards and have their goofy fun.
Power Level 7 in the Commander Community
One way to determine the power level of a Commander deck is to consider its turncount. Play the deck multiple times, including goldfishing (playing the deck by yourself without an opponent), and note what turn the deck most consistently establishes dominance. This turn can be when the deck wins or when it establishes complete or near-complete dominance.
My fundamental philosophy is that a combo RELIES on each individual card to succeed. You don’t NEED it to win, but having it will significantly improve your chances. For example, you don’t NEED a Dragon Tempest to win, but it makes it so much easier if you have it. As for a difference between a 5 and a 7… there isn’t much of one honestly. I know some of my decks are 7s because I know they aren’t 8+ decks. I used to play in a very competitive scene but didn’t have the cash to build a hyper competitive deck so I built something that worked on a cheaper budget.
There are decks that do not try to win the game early, but which will instead try to lock the board down in some way so that other players cannot win. For that reason, I like to say that I care about the turn a deck can win or lock the game. If a player doesn’t know what that means, they probably can’t lock the game at all, but if they are on a stax or control deck they should understand. One of the most common ways to evaluate an EDH deck is to assign a number from 1 to 10, where 10 is the strongest and 1 is the weakest. The joke is always that players assign their own decks a power level of 7.
If everything is a 7, then nothing is a 7, but it’s still funny how many players peg their decks to that particular number. Level 6 is the first place you’ll see some infinite combos or other deliberately constructed win conditions. You see fewer tap lands at this stage, and if you do it’ll be something like scry lands that give you an additional benefit or lifegain dual lands if they tie in with the deck’s strategy.