Building your first Magic deck is one of those things that looks complicated from the outside but becomes straightforward once someone breaks it down without assuming you already know the terminology.
Most beginner deck building guides are written by experienced players and skip the parts that experienced players consider obvious. This guide doesn't do that. It starts from zero and walks through every step of building your first playable deck.
The focus here is Commander — the format where you build a 100-card deck around a legendary creature. Commander is the most popular format in Australia and the most forgiving for new players learning to build decks.
To build a Commander deck: pick a legendary creature as your commander, choose the colours it determines, include approximately 37–38 lands, 10 ramp cards, 10 card draw cards, 10 removal cards, and fill the remaining 30+ slots with cards that support your commander's strategy. Keep all 100 cards to a single copy each (except basic lands). Start with a preconstructed deck and modify rather than building from scratch if this is your first deck.
Before You Build: Should You Start With a Precon?
If this is genuinely your first Magic deck, the honest recommendation is to start with a Commander preconstructed deck rather than building from scratch.
Here's why: building a functional Commander deck from scratch requires understanding what your commander does, what synergises with it, what the right mana ratio is, and how to balance different card types. Without playing experience, these decisions are guesswork.
A Commander precon gives you a complete, functional 100-card deck immediately. Play it for 10–20 games. You'll develop a feel for what the deck needs, what's working, and what you'd change. That experience makes your first deck building decisions dramatically better than building cold.
That said, many players learn by doing — including building a deck. This guide covers both paths: modifying a precon, and building from scratch.
Understanding the Commander Format Rules
Before building, you need to understand the specific rules that shape Commander deck construction:
100 cards total. Your deck is exactly 100 cards including your commander.
Singleton. Only one copy of each card (except basic lands). You can't run four copies of your favourite card the way you can in Standard.
Colour identity. Every card in your deck must match your commander's colour identity. If your commander is white and blue, you can only use white cards, blue cards, colourless cards, and cards with both white and blue (Azorius) in their casting costs or rules text. You cannot include red, green, or black cards.
The commander lives in the Command Zone. Your commander starts the game in a special zone (the Command Zone) rather than your deck. You can cast it from there at any time you have the mana, and if it dies or goes to exile, you can return it to the Command Zone and cast it again — though it costs an extra 2 mana each time it's been cast this way.
Multiplayer. Commander is typically played with four players. Each player starts at 40 life. There is also a Commander Damage rule: if a single commander deals 21 combat damage to you, you lose regardless of your life total.
Step 1: Choose Your Commander
Your commander is the heart of the deck. Every other card decision flows from it.
For a first deck, look for a commander that:
Has a clear, readable ability. If you need to read the card three times to understand what it does, it's probably not the right starting point. Look for commanders with straightforward abilities — "whenever you cast a spell, draw a card" or "creatures you control get +1/+1" are easy to build around.
Tells you what cards to include. The best commanders for beginners effectively write part of your deck list for you. A commander that cares about dragons tells you to include dragons. A commander that cares about lifegain tells you to include lifegain cards.
Has two colours or fewer. More colours mean more flexibility but also more complexity in building your mana base. One or two-colour commanders are simpler for first builds.
You don't need to own your commander to choose it — decide on the commander first, then acquire the card. Singles from our eBay store are almost always cheaper than pulling for a specific legendary creature from booster packs.
Step 2: Understand Your Colour Identity and Card Pool
Once you have your commander, you know your colours. This determines the entire card pool you can draw from.
Use Scryfall (scryfall.com) — a free card search engine — to explore cards within your colour identity. You can search by colour, card type, rules text, and mana cost. This is an essential tool for deck building and it's free.
Search for cards that:
- Match your commander's theme (if your commander cares about tokens, search for "create token" in your colours)
- Fill the core functional roles every Commander deck needs (explained in Step 4)
Step 3: Understand the 100-Card Structure
A functional Commander deck follows a rough structure. This is not a rigid rule — experienced players deviate based on strategy — but it's a reliable starting framework for beginners:
Lands: 37–38 The backbone of your deck. Most beginner Commander decks run 37–38 lands. More lands means more consistent ability to play your spells on time. Starting with 37 is safe.
Ramp: 10 Ramp cards help you generate extra mana faster than normal, letting you cast your spells earlier and your commander more than once. Sol Ring is the most iconic Commander ramp card (it's colourless, so it goes in any deck). Signets (two-mana artifacts that produce mana of your colours) are another staple.
Card Draw: 10 Cards that let you draw more cards keep your hand full and your options open. Running out of cards in hand in Commander means running out of plays. Every Commander deck needs reliable ways to refill.
Removal: 10 Answers for threats. Creature removal, artifact removal, enchantment removal. You need ways to deal with things your opponents put on the table that threaten you or block your strategy.
Theme and Win Conditions: 42–43 The cards that actually execute your strategy and win you the game. These are the most fun to choose because they define what your deck does.
Step 4: Fill Your Ramp Slots
Every Commander deck needs mana acceleration. Here are reliable ramp options that work in any colours:
Colourless ramp (works in any deck): Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Thought Vessel, Mind Stone, Talisman of your colour pair. These are Commander staples that appear in most decks because they work regardless of strategy.
Green ramp (if your commander is green): Green has the best ramp in the game. Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Rampant Growth, and similar spells fetch extra lands from your deck. If you're playing green, lean on these heavily.
Search Scryfall for "ramp" in your commander's colours to find more options. Aim for 10 ramp sources total.
Step 5: Fill Your Card Draw Slots
Card draw keeps you from running out of gas in long Commander games. Options vary by colour:
Blue has the best card draw: Rhystic Study, Arcane Denial, Ponder, Preordain.
Black draws cards at a cost: Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Read the Bones.
Green draws based on creatures: Harmonize, Shamanic Revelation.
White and Red have historically weaker draw but have improved: Welcoming Vampire, Skullclamp, Faithless Looting.
Colourless/Artifact draw: Staff of Compleation, Howling Mine variants.
Aim for 10 card draw sources. A mix of instant-speed (draw in response to things) and sorcery-speed (cheaper but less flexible) is ideal.
Step 6: Fill Your Removal Slots
You need ways to deal with threats across the table. Aim for 10 removal pieces covering:
Creature removal: Cards that destroy, exile, or bounce enemy creatures.
Artifact/Enchantment removal: Cards that answer non-creature permanents. Every Commander deck should have at least 2–3 answers for artifacts and enchantments.
Universal removal: Cards that answer multiple permanent types. Generous Gift (white), Beast Within (green), and Chaos Warp (red) are popular choices.
Board wipes: Mass removal that clears the entire table when things get out of control. Every Commander deck benefits from 1–2 board wipes.
Step 7: Build Your Mana Base
Your lands are your mana base. For a first Commander deck, a simplified mana base is fine:
Basic lands: A significant portion of your land slots should be basic lands (Plains, Islands, Swamps, Mountains, Forests) in whatever combination your colours require.
Dual lands: Lands that tap for two different colours of mana. Command Tower is the most important dual land in Commander — it taps for any colour in your commander's identity and goes in every Commander deck regardless of strategy.
Utility lands: Some lands do things beyond producing mana. Temple of the False God (produces two mana when you have five or more lands), Reliquary Tower (no maximum hand size), and cycle lands (pay mana to draw a card) are popular utility options.
For a two-colour Commander deck, roughly 35 basic lands plus Command Tower plus a few dual lands and utility lands is a functional starting mana base.
Step 8: Fill Your Theme Slots
The remaining 42–43 slots are your strategy cards. These should:
- Directly support what your commander does
- Help you execute your win condition
- Create synergies with each other, not just with your commander
This is where Scryfall searches become essential. Search for the key mechanic or theme your commander cares about and find the best cards in your colour identity that support it.
Modifying a Precon Instead of Building From Scratch
If you started with a Commander precon, modification is simpler than building from scratch:
- Play the deck as-is for 10–20 games
- Note which cards never seem to do anything useful
- Note which effects you wished you had more of
- Replace the weak cards one at a time with better options
Buying singles for specific upgrades is significantly cheaper than opening packs hoping to pull what you need. Our eBay store has singles across all major MTG sets with Australian shipping.
A AU$30–50 upgrade budget applied to a Commander precon is usually enough to make a noticeable difference to how consistently the deck executes its strategy.
Testing and Iterating
No Commander deck is perfect on first construction. Play it, see what happens, and adjust. Common first-build problems:
Too few lands or ramp: Your spells are always too expensive. Add more lands or ramp sources.
Running out of cards: Your hand empties quickly. Add more card draw.
Can't answer threats: Opponents' permanents are winning unchecked. Add more removal.
No clear win condition: The deck does things but doesn't close out games. Add cards that directly threaten opponents' life totals or win the game outright.
Deck building is an iterative process. Every Commander player's decks evolve over time.
Looking for specific singles to build or upgrade your Commander deck? Browse our eBay store for MTG singles with Australian shipping.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many lands should a Commander deck have? 37–38 is the standard recommendation for most Commander decks. Decks with lots of ramp can run 35–36. Decks with high mana curves may want 38–40. Start at 37 and adjust based on how the deck plays.
Can I put any card in a Commander deck? No. Every card must be within your commander's colour identity. Colourless cards (artifacts with no colour symbols in their rules text, colourless spells) can go in any deck. Some cards are also banned in Commander — check the official Commander banned list at mtgcommander.net.
How much does it cost to build a Commander deck from scratch in Australia? A functional Commander deck built from singles can be put together for AU$80–200 depending on card choices. Avoiding format staples (which command premium prices) and focusing on synergy over raw power keeps costs lower. Budget Commander deckbuilding is a well-established approach with a large online community.
Where do I find card suggestions for my commander? EDHREC (edhrec.com) is the definitive resource for Commander deckbuilding. Enter your commander and it shows you the most commonly played cards with that commander, organises them by role (ramp, draw, removal etc), and provides budget alternatives.
Should my first Commander deck have a clear win condition? Yes, but it doesn't need to be a combo win. In casual Commander, winning by attacking with large creatures or overwhelming opponents with card advantage is completely legitimate. Focus on having a clear direction rather than a specific infinite combo.
How do I know if my deck is too powerful or not powerful enough for my playgroup? Talk to your playgroup. Commander has an informal power level scale (1–10 or bracket systems) and most experienced players can assess a deck list. Being transparent about what your deck does prevents frustrating mismatches.