If you’ve seen or encountered a Commander game that was over in three turns, don’t let it scar you as those games are on a competitive level. The majority of players actually want to have an enjoyable time. And in casual commander, people are encouraged to use fun decks and utilise all the different cards in Magic’s history, building the wackiest themes most suited to their deviant tastes.

But having access to that pool of over 20,000 eligible cards can sometimes be a pain rather than a boon, especially for newer players. To help you on your way, we came up with our very own themes that many will find universally quite appealing. After all, everyone knows cats, dogs…and squirrels?

Go Nuts with the New Squirrel Casual Commander

With the release of Modern Horizons 2 in June 2021, Magic finally has a legitimate Commander contender in the squirrel tribe – Chatterfang, Squirrel General. It even sounds like something a 6-year-old would name their backyard pet squirrel! Chatterfang is actually no slouch eating acorns all day, as it’s able to generate extra squirrel tokens easily, plus pump or dump other Creatures whenever needed.

If you love cute stuff rather than gory Zombies or giant monsters, you’ll definitely have fun building this furry deck. The whole idea is to just generate a swarm of tokens – squirrels and some others – and then overwhelm your other casual Commander friends with a big pump spell or effect like Craterhoof Behemoth or Finale of Devastation.

This particular version isn’t as budget friendly as the others on the list, but you can swap in cheap cards that generate tokens, plus there are lots of other cheap alternatives such as End-Raze Forerunners, even if they are less Mana efficient or have reduced impact.

Everyone Loves Cats and Dogs

Who let the dogs out? Shortly before squirrels got their time in the limelight, it was Earth’s very own native Dog that finally got their official Creature class. All old cards with the class Hound were recategorised into Dogs when the card Rin and Seri, Inseparable was released. Rin and Seri is an amazing token generator, as whether you’re casting cats or dogs, you’ll just get more of them!

Needless to say this deck will have tons of Creatures, and pretty much all of them are either a cat or a dog. Rin and Seri’s activated ability is also very relevant, allowing you to deal with any threat on the board, even targeting opponents directly, plus you gain life to keep you afloat. Hey, cats don’t like the water right?

The triple colours also give you a good range of cards available. There’s no blue so you’ll have to watch out for those board wipes like Wrath of God that can be very detrimental for your deck. If you don’t like building a deck, the official Secret Lair product line produced a complete, ready-to-play Commander deck for $150. Unfortunately because it had a limited print run, decks were sold out within hours.

Group Hug in Casual Commander

Casual Commander can be highly political, so why not play the diplomat? With Kwain, the Itinerant Meddler, you can do just that because its ability allows everyone to draw a card (and who doesn’t like drawing cards). This strategy is called the ‘group hug’ because everyone gets warm and fuzzy when they’re rewarded without having to do anything.

So how do you actually win with this Kwain deck if all you do is help your opponents? Rather than good old combat, this deck’s strategy is actually to stop others from attacking you, and keep them at bay by using counter spells. Or if the opponents’ battlefield is getting too cluttered, unleash one of your many board wipe spells. In the meantime, you’re also drawing more and more cards and ultimately want to win using Laboratory Maniac or Approach of the Second Sun.

Defence is the Best Offence – Casual Commander Built Around Walls

In every other constructed format in Magic, Creatures with Defender (previously known as Walls) are sadly ostracised due to their inability to attack. Defenders often have a cheap casting cost and serve as amazing blockers, so why aren’t they given more love? Well it’s exactly because they often have 0 power and can’t attack, which makes them way less attractive. After all, if you can’t attack, how do you win?

Thankfully, in casual Commander, you’re able to guarantee your walls are able to attack thanks to Arcades, the Strategist. This fun deck is also cheap to build, as Defender cards are in such low demand. The more expensive cards will be the non-Basic Lands, but you can also use cheap Basic Lands as substitutes. Once you build up an army of walls, you can easily sit back, defend, and let the dust settle before you bring Arcades or one of your other attack enablers to finish the game.

Be Unwieldy With Huge and Lumbering Giants

If you’re not one to follow convention, we just must have the best rebellious choice you could make in MTG casual commander. Giants as a creature type have been ridiculed and shun upon because, well, they usually look monstrous and lack manners, and secondly they just aren’t that good in game because of their high casting costs.

But with Aegar, the Freezing Flame as a decent 3-cost Commander that can help you draw cards, you’ll actually enjoy ticking off your opponent’s little Creatures. Since your Giants are pretty tough, use small sweeper spells like Fiery Cannonade, Cinderclasm and Flame Sweep to kill off any token army. If you have Toralf, God of Fury on the board, that leads to some crazy damage triggers.

Let the Coin Decide Your Fate

Magic is a game of skill, intelligence, strategy, and.. chance? The need to draw Lands to generate Mana and cast spells is already a game of chance in itself. Why not add to the fun by using coin flips to get more value from this deck led by the new Yusri, Fortune’s Flame? Yusri costs only 3 Mana, and you can go big (five coin flips) or small (just one), depending on your mood, with each attack. You gain for every win, and take a loss if you don’t – hey that’s gambling.

You may be surprised to know there are a good number of cards in Magic’s history that uses coin flips. More recently, Krark, the Thumbless has found itself to be another janky Commander that plays with the dice. There’s also the hilarious Fiery Gambit that could be a game changer if you get lucky with 3 flips. It certainly sounds easier than getting 5 flip wins to trigger Yusri.

With this deck, you no longer feel like hitting the casino!

One-Punch Man Exists in Casual Commander

Fans of Saitama from the One-Punch Man anime series will love this deck. Even if you haven’t heard of One-Punch Man, just think of Hulk from Marvel or Superman from DC Comics. They are practically invincible and they beat their opponents with one ultimate move. In Magic, you can get the same effect with Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest. He may be a Blue Creature, but thanks to the Red and White ability, he can utilise all the Instant-speed combat tricks available for those colours.

Because Shu Yun has Prowess (getting a +1/+1 boost for each cast of a noncreature spell) and can give himself Double Strike, his damage output can rack up pretty quickly. It’s not completely uncommon to see him deal 21 Commander damage in a single attack! The downside is that you’re pretty much expending your entire hand of cards to deal that one fatal punch and it will leave you defenceless or out of gas against your other opponents. Still, there’s a great deal of satisfaction when you’re able to kill just one opponent with a single punch. It’s crazy fun as well!

End Step

There are surely tons of other fun themes and tribes to fool around with in the casual Commander format – we’re just hitting the tip of the iceberg here. But we hope these 7 fun decks will be enough to get you started and excited! If you’ve got a wacky deck that you’re particularly fond of, drop us an email.