Kykar's limitation to trigger only on noncreature spells is hardly restrictive, given so many other available spell types. Meanwhile Kykar easily accumulates payoffs through creating a creature token, providing a sacrifice outlet and a source of mana. After selecting this commander, I logged into Archidekt to make a new deck.

If the game lasts 10 turns, and half of your nonland cards cost that much mana, you certainly aren't casting many of them and they'll just rot in your hand. "Hate" cards are another type of card that combat a specific archetype. Artifact decks are a popular strategy pauper decks that can really be hurt by something like Manglehorn. I usually play decks that focus on the graveyard (another popular strategy), so Rest in Peace gives me nightmares. The best way to do that is increasing the number of cards you can play in a game.

These forms of protection are also non-creature spells, so it lets us make some tokens in the process too. Clout of Dominus is basically free at one mana as the spirit Kykar creates will be sufficient to recoup the cost of playing it. Misdirection, Narset’s Reversal, and Silence are all great ways of stopping our opponents’ interaction and allow us to have some peace and quiet to cast our spells.

Abilities

Because of this you need to know what kind of deck you want to build. Here’s a picture of the deck list I ended up constructing as well as a link to the Archidekt so you can look at everything yourself. EDH stands for Elder Dragon Highlander and is essentially equal to Commander.

Mulligans

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages. Fill out the rest with a balance of cards, and you'll be well on your way to being a Commander veteran. This will also help make sure you don't go over the budget you have. If you have a limit to spend around $100 on a deck, this will help you narrow your choices and keep your budget in mind.

What is the best way to win?

Battles are a newer card type that debuted with March of the Machine. Battles, being non-creature spells, trigger Kykar's ability to make a spirit creature token. Meanwhile, Kykar and the tokens have flying, which makes it easier to attack the battles and earn the rewards on the flip side. There are eighteen battles in Jeskai (white, blue and red) colors, which is plenty for a subtheme in this deck.

The law of supply and demand teaches us that as demand for a product increases, so does the price. If your deck plays all the most popular cards, then that deck will probably be expensive. The main thing to remember is to find cards that have synergy with each other to help you achieve your win condition. In Magic, a tutor is a card that allows you to search your library for another card and either put it in your hand or at the top of your library.

Now that you have all your potential cards picked out you need to start assembling your deck. The tricky part comes in narrowing your card pool down to what you can afford versus the purpose of each card inside the deck. Balthor the Defiled, Karador, Ghost Chieftain, and Chainer, Nightmare Adept are the best commanders that fit into these decks. As the name suggests, reanimator decks rely on graveyard synergies and are built around bringing one (or a lot of) creatures to the battlefield. Narset, Enlightened Master, Uril, the Miststalker, and Skullbriar, the Walking Grave are examples of commanders that use different Voltron approaches to get the job done. As you may expect, tribal decks rely on synergies between creatures of the same type and their “lords” to make them bigger.

Card advantage basically means having more cards in hand than your opponents. Not only does having more cards in hand decrease the likelihood of you running out of things to play, but it also gives you a wider range of options for your turn. As for how many tutors you should play, I say play as many as you can! Obviously, we’d all love to just draw the perfect card each turn, but anyone who’s played a game of Magic knows that hardly ever happens.

These issues are ironed out by playing with the deck and tweaking it constantly. Of course, you could always just try searching for certain keywords that fit your idea on a site like Scryfall, too. In my opinion the above categories are the most important to be thinking about while building a deck, but there's three more types of cards I wanted to discuss. Check out the cost/production section which will show you how many sources you have for each color, compared to how many times that color comes up in the cost of your included cards.

While you definitely want to be playing a good amount of creatures in your deck, you also should consider playing non-creature, non-Equipment cards that have synergy with your game plan. Many of the most important utility cards for this theme are in white. These three top Equipment commanders all have a couple of things in common. First, they're all red and white, with Gwyn also allowing you to put black cards in your deck. Secondly, they all work well with Equipment and equipped creatures.

It seems counter-intuitive, but restricting what you can play by establishing rules (to follow or break) actually makes it so the players have an increased opportunity for creativity. If you find that your deck gets stuck without enough things to do or draws into more draw spells, adjust this number accordingly. You can find the balance between too many and too little by playtesting. Since card advantage is pretty important, I think you should commit a good number of cards to it. Each of these forms of card advantage increases what you are able to do for your mana relative to what your opponents are able to do with theirs. Cards like Cyclonic Rift, Mizzium Mortars and Winds of Abandon often put you in a good position to win.