Commander is the format where you can cast a twelve-mana spell, draw fourteen cards, and still lose because you “didn’t want to make enemies” on turn four.
It’s also the format where small, boring decisions matter more than people admit. Not the flashy stuff. The basics. Combat, priority, threat assessment, and the gentle art of not donating the game to the player who’s been “mana screwed” with seven cards in hand.
Here are five common Commander mistakes i see all the time, plus the fixes that actually make your games better.
Common Commander mistakes #1: Not attacking (and donating free turns)
A lot of Commander players treat combat like an optional side quest. They build a board, look at three opponents, and decide the safest plan is to… pass. Over and over. Because “it’s early” or “i don’t want to paint a target on myself.”
Meanwhile, the green player is ramping, the blue player is sculpting a hand, and the black player is quietly assembling a win with the kind of calm that should worry you.
Why chip damage matters in a 40-life format
Yes, everyone starts at 40 life. No, that doesn’t mean early hits are pointless.
Early chip damage does a few things that are easy to overlook:
- It converts your board into progress instead of decoration.
- It narrows someone’s options later. A player at 18 can’t tank “just one more” hit forever.
- It forces reactions. People use removal, trade blockers, or change lines when they feel pressure.
- It creates tempo. If your attacks force awkward blocks or bad trades, you’re pulling the table’s momentum toward you.
Even a few points of damage can change how a game ends. Commander games often come down to one big swing, one turn cycle, or one unanswered engine. If you spent the first six turns refusing to take safe attacks, you gave everyone extra time for free.
Who should you attack?
This is where “table politics” gets real. Attacking randomly is how you become the villain without any of the benefits. Attacking with a plan is how you win games without feeling like you’re bullying someone.
A simple way to choose targets:
- Hit the player who will outscale you late (ramp/value decks).
- Hit the player who is open and developing slowly but has lots of hidden information (full hand, untapped mana).
- Hit the player who is most likely to wipe the board after you “wait one more turn.”
And yes, sometimes you should hit the person who “isn’t doing anything.” If someone is sitting there with eight cards, two untapped Islands, and a poker face, that’s not “behind.” That’s “armed.”
The board wipe problem
Here’s the classic Commander tragedy:
You build a strong board. You decide not to attack because you’re “waiting for the right moment.” Someone casts Wrath of God (or Toxic Deluge, or Farewell, or whatever flavor of sadness they prefer). Your board disappears. Your “right moment” goes with it.
If you had been attacking for three turns, you at least got value out of your creatures. You forced blocks. You pushed damage. You shaped the table.
If you didn’t attack, you basically spent turns casting creatures as a hobby.
The fix
Start thinking like this: every turn you don’t attack when you safely can, you are giving the table another full turn cycle. That’s three draw steps, three land drops, and three opportunities for someone to do something unfair.
Pick a target by turn 3–4 and make it your default plan unless something changes.
Commander threat assessment mistakes: Only judging what’s on board
Threat assessment is the most common thing people get wrong in Commander, and it’s usually not because they’re clueless. It’s because the board is visible, and hidden information is annoying.
So people point removal at the scariest-looking creature, feel responsible, and then lose to the card they didn’t respect: the engine, the tutor, the player with the full grip, the commander that turns one extra turn into a win.
Board state is not the whole game
In Commander, the real “threat board” often looks like this:
- Hand size: cards are options, and options kill you
- Untapped mana: interaction, protection, instant-speed nonsense
- Commander colors: what they can represent (and what you can’t)
- Graveyard: some decks treat it like a second hand
- Known patterns: has this deck shown tutors, extra turns, fast mana, or combo pieces?
A 10/10 is scary. But a player with a quiet board, seven cards in hand, and open mana can be scarier. Especially if they’ve been “patient” all game. Patience is often just the sound of a trap being set.
Don’t waste premium interaction
Counterspells and clean removal are some of the most valuable resources in Commander because you can’t answer everything. If you spend your best answers on the wrong targets, you don’t just lose a card. You lose your ability to stop the thing that actually ends the game.
A good mental check before you fire removal:
- Does this permanent win the game on its own?
- Does it create repeated value that will bury the table?
- Does it enable a combo line or protect one?
- If i don’t answer this now, do i still have a window later?
Sometimes the right play is to let the big creature exist and save interaction for the engine behind it.
The fix
Ask one question more often: “What happens if they untap?”
If the answer is “they might win,” you treat them like the threat, even if their board is modest.
If the answer is “they’ll hit someone for 8,” that might sting, but it might not be the emergency.
And when in doubt, pay attention to who is drawing extra cards. Card advantage is the quiet prequel to most Commander wins.
Stack and priority mistakes in Commander: Rushing through windows
Commander is where priority goes to die. Not because people are malicious, but because multiplayer makes the flow clunky and everyone wants to keep things moving.
So we get this:
“I cast this… resolves… go to combat… attack… damage… okay so then—”
And someone says, “Hold on. I had a response.”
Now we rewind, half the table is annoyed, and the other half is trying to remember if a card was drawn before or after the trigger. Fun.
Priority is a real thing, even in casual games
In multiplayer, each player gets a chance to respond before something resolves. That matters more than in 1v1 because there are more players with more possible responses.
Skipping priority windows creates two problems:
- People miss chances to interact.
- The game becomes unfair in subtle ways, because some players are better at interrupting than others.
Also, rushing can leak information. If you blaze through your turn but slow down dramatically at one moment, you just told the table you have something. Sometimes that’s fine. Sometimes you just painted a target on your forehead for free.
Use clean checkpoints
You don’t need to narrate every single action like you’re streaming. But you should slow down at the moments that matter:
- Before combat
- Before blocks
- Before damage
- When a big engine, tutor, or board wipe hits the stack
- When someone is clearly trying to “sneak” a phase change
A small habit that helps: use short, consistent phrases like “responses?” and “moving to combat?” It keeps the game smooth without turning it into a rules lecture.
The fix
Treat priority like table etiquette. If you want other people to respect your windows, respect theirs.
And if you’re the player who always says “wait, wait, wait” after actions have resolved… slow down. You’ll play better, and people will stop sighing every time you pick up your deck.
Virtual card advantage in Commander: Threats that work without being cast
Virtual card advantage (VCA) sounds like a theory term, but it’s a real thing that wins games.
It’s when a card creates value by changing what opponents feel safe doing, even if you never spend the card.
What VCA looks like at a real table
If you have on-board interaction, people play around it.
If you have open mana and represent a counterspell, people hesitate.
If you have a known removal creature sitting there, players avoid committing their best artifacts and enchantments into it.
That hesitation is value. It’s not a card drawn, but it’s a decision you shaped without spending resources.
Commander is full of deterrents:
- sacrifice-to-destroy creatures
- repeatable removal pieces
- open mana that suggests interaction
- visible “gotcha” cards that punish greedy plays
Sometimes the best VCA is simply being the player who attacks. A table that knows you’ll actually swing has to respect combat math and tempo. A table that knows you won’t attack can play however they want until the late game, which is exactly what most decks want.
The trap: holding up mana forever
Here’s where people mess this up: they pay too much for the illusion.
If you spend every turn holding up mana for three opponents’ turns, and you never cast anything, you’re falling behind. You’re basically paying rent to look scary.
VCA should support your game plan, not replace it.
A good balance is to represent interaction when it’s meaningful, but still develop your board when there’s nothing worth answering. Flexible interaction helps here too. If your removal can hit multiple types of targets, you don’t end up holding dead cards while pretending you’re “in control.”
The fix
Use deterrents and representation as leverage, but don’t stall your own development just to keep mana open “in case something happens.”
Something will happen. It always does. The question is whether you’re still building toward your own win while you wait.
The biggest Commander mistake: Taking it too seriously
Commander is a social format. That doesn’t mean “no one tries to win.” It means the experience matters, and expectations matter even more.
A lot of bad Commander games come from mismatched goals:
- One player brought a tuned combo list.
- One player brought a precon with two upgrades and a dream.
- One player brought “my theme is chairs.”
- Everyone pretended it would be fine.
Then it wasn’t fine.
Rule 0 is not cringe, it’s preventative maintenance
You don’t need a ten-minute speech before every game. But you do need a basic check-in, especially with new groups:
- How fast does your deck win if nobody stops it?
- Are you using fast mana or heavy tutors?
- Are there combos that end the game suddenly?
- Is this a “battlecruiser” table or a “we end games” table?
This kind of clarity reduces salt and increases fun. It also makes threat assessment easier because people aren’t guessing what “power level 7” means to a stranger (it always means “my deck is fair, yours is oppressive”).
Proxies and “budget fairness”
Since this is PrintMTG, it’s worth saying plainly: proxies can make Commander more fun when they’re used honestly.
If proxies let someone match the table’s power level without spending rent money on cardboard, that’s usually good for the pod. The problem isn’t proxies. The problem is surprise.
If you show up with a deck that effectively plays like cEDH at a casual table, it doesn’t matter whether the cards are real. The experience is still the same.
The fix
Be clear about what you’re playing. Don’t hide the ball. And don’t treat every game like a personal referendum on your worth as a wizard.
Sometimes the best Commander game ends with a ridiculous topdeck and everyone laughing. If that idea bothers you, there are other formats. They’re called “tournaments.”
Final thoughts: play tighter, and enjoy the table more
Commander has room for big plays, weird cards, and strong decks. But the format also punishes the same mistakes over and over.
If you want better games, focus on these basics:
Attack when you can. Don’t give away free turns. Assess threats using hidden information, not just board size. Respect priority and the stack so everyone gets real windows to respond. Use virtual card advantage as leverage, but keep progressing. And talk about expectations so the table is actually playing the same game.
You don’t need to become a rules robot. You just need to stop donating wins to the player who “wasn’t doing anything” right up until they were.
