So, you’ve started playing Commander.
I’m sure that sentence makes this article feel like an intervention but nope, I’m with you all the way! As one of the most popular ways to play Magic, you’re joining a huge community, and it’s not always easy to ask where to start. We have a “how to play” guide coming up soon, but right now we can tackle a different, also important question. What do you need to buy?
If you spend a few minutes searching the internet for a list of what you need, you’ll get a lot of different answers. I’m not saying any of those are wrong, but what I will give you is the list of things I’ve been using for the past five years of playing the game, because I did not spend a penny more than I felt I needed to, and use every single one of these items at literally every session I’ve played.
This guide has been brought to you by our friends at Magic Madhouse, who I’ll speak a little bit about at the end of the article.
Cards
Ah yes, the most important thing you can own. You need cards to play, 100 of them to be precise, and there are multiple ways you can get them. You can make a deck list online and then buy singles, buy boosters and build around whatever you pull, or even dip into a preconstructed deck made by Wizards’ themselves and either upgrade that or play it right out of the box. There’s no wrong answers, only realising you should probably set a budget before you start.
Deck Box
You need to keep your cards safe to transport them, and there are lots of different styles of deck box to look out for. Most of it is personal preference, but one thing I would always look out for is the size. Commander isn’t the only way to play Magic, and Magic isn’t even the only card game out there, so you need to make sure whatever deck box you buy can fit at least 120 standard cards in it (or is listed as 100+ cards). Why 100+ when it’s a 100 card deck? Because you’ll be sleeving your cards too!
Sleeves
Again, make sure you get sleeves for “standard” sized cards, not Japanese. There are two schools of thought when it comes to sleeving, single or double (we do not talk about triple). If you’re double sleeving, you need to get “penny” sleeves, which are small, transparent plastic sleeves that you put your cards in first before then putting them in a normal sleeve. If you want to just put them in a normal sleeve, that’s also fine (that’s my choice). Most sleeves come in either matte or gloss, which is again entirely down to preference (gloss can sometimes catch glare from overhead lights, but matte often makes cards look a little dull), and if I can make a personal (unsponsored) suggestion, Dragon Shield tend to offer the best bang for your buck in the market right now, though GameGenic are no slouch either. Dragon Shield have lots of very pretty designs if you want something more than just basic block colours.
Playmat
When I first started playing, I played without a mat. My cards are already sleeved I thought, why a mat as well? Until I played at a friends house, put a card in a suspicious patch on the table, and now that sleeve sticks to anything it touches. Playmats offer a more even surface, give an extra layer of protection, and come in a large variation of designs, many featuring art directly from the cards themselves (you can pry my Eldraine art from my cold, dead hands).
Technically you could stop here. I’ve found that as long as you have these things, your cards will be fine and nobody will give you judging looks from across the table, but I personally would recommend grabbing a couple more things before you’re done.
Card Folders
Unless you only play with vanilla precons, and never play in a store that gives out promos, you’re going to end up with some spare cards. Whilst “bulk” commons and uncommons can be put in any old storage box until you have a use for them, what about those cool art treatments, or valuable rares and mythics you manage to get your hands on? That’s where folders come in.
Once again, standard size pockets are important. I personally use Vault X, whose 9 pocket side-loaders keep cards safe and are relatively light to carry around. Side-loading means you the plastic sections open at the side not the top. This means if you turn the binder upside down, they won’t all drop out the top! This way you can either show off the cards you want to keep, or bring cards you want to trade or sell in a safe way to wherever you’re going.
Dice
I’ll keep this one simple. The standard suite of dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d20) are an excellent piece of kit for tracking things in a game. +1/+1 counters, life, copies, spare mana, you name it. You can also get special dice printer with various sides for mechanics in Magic, like floating keywords or loyalty, if you want to get fancy. I personally brought a bumper pack of 20 d6 to use with my +1/+1 deck and it’s served me very well. After the Dungeons & Dragons set, some Magic cards actually require you to roll various dice anyway, so whilst someone at the table will probably have some, it’s always polite to bring your own.
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Life Trackers
Right, when it comes to life tracking, most people will use their phone. The official Magic: The Gathering Companion app comes with it’s own life trackers (they work for the whole game board, and also track commander damage, poison, tax, and lots more, super handy). However, as someone who attends the occasional all-day convention, I don’t want to waste my precious phone battery when I might need it to help me navigate the journey home. So that’s where physical life tracking comes in.
Wizards released a product called a spindown, which if you ever play a pre-release or buy a bundle, you’ll end up owning. These are basically d20s, but the numbers go sequentially (and they aren’t balanced), so if you’re playing Commander you can just use two of those. They also have cardboard trackers that come with old precons, or nice branded notepads, or even little clicky wheels. The options are endless. As long as it can display a number between 1-99 (no higher than that please lifegain decks), you can feasibly use it as a life tracker!
Whiteboard Cards
This is a personal one for me, but I play a lot of cards that generate tokens, and rather than carrying around a stack of 50+ token cards, I just have a small pack of these with a dry-erase marker. Little card sized whiteboards are life savers. You can get ones designed specifically for Magic if you like, but any little surface you can use a marker on and erase will do. I also use these for tracking counters and things I may not have dice for (or if I’m very lucky and my Hydra deck starts generating more +1s than I can be bothered using dice for).
Now you’ll be all set for nearly any situation in a Commander game! No list is exhaustive, and I’m sure you’ll all eventually find something else you want to carry (I didn’t cover any way of carrying around multiple deck boxes and playmats for example), but if you’re on a budget and wondering what you really need to start, this is what I’d go with!
Magic Madhouse is the UK’s largest online Magic: the Gathering store, with a site boasting huge amounts of sealed product, singles and accessories. Not only that, they also stock many other popular TCGs (like Lorcana, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Star Wars: Unlimited and more) and even board games and Games Workshop products too. Delivery is fast and reliable, with products packaged securely in impact-resistant materials, direct distributor supply chains and audits taking place to ensure no resealed product is sold, and it arrives at your door in the exact condition it was sent in.