If you’ve ever played the classic Commander minigame “everyone says 7, someone wins on turn four,” this checklist is for you.
Because numbers are vibes. Questions are data.
TLDR
- Ask these 10 questions and you’ll predict the game better than any 1–10 scale.
- You’re looking for: speed, consistency, interaction, fast mana, tutors, locks, extra turns, wipes, recursion, and pod expectations.
- You do not need exact counts for everything. You need honest ranges and patterns.
- Use this before game one, not as a postgame autopsy.
How to Use This Checklist
You can do this in under two minutes:
- Each player answers quickly.
- If a question feels sensitive, answer with a range: “a couple,” “a lot,” “none,” “only if needed.”
- If answers don’t match, that’s your sign to adjust decks or expectations.
The 10 Questions
1) How does your deck win most often?
Examples:
- Combat swarm
- Voltron commander damage
- Value engine into a finisher
- Combo (A+B, loop, storm-ish)
- Hard lock into inevitability
This sets the “shape” of the game.
2) When does your deck start threatening a win?
You’re not promising a win. You’re describing pressure.
- “Not before turn 8” is a very different table than “turn 5 if unchecked.”
3) How many tutors do you run?
You don’t need a spreadsheet. Just be real:
- None
- A couple (1–3)
- Several (4–7)
- Lots (8+)
Tutors are consistency and speed in trench coat.
4) Any fast mana besides Sol Ring?
Fast mana includes the stuff that jumps you ahead early.
If one player says “yes, a bunch,” and the rest say “no,” you probably need a different pod or a different deck.
5) How much stack interaction do you play?
Translation: “Can you stop the combo player?”
- None or almost none
- A few pieces
- A real suite of cheap interaction
6) Do you have infinite combos? If yes, how compact are they?
Ask:
- “Is it deterministic?”
- “How many pieces?”
- “Does it win immediately or create a long loop?”
“Infinite” isn’t the problem. Surprise infinite is.
7) Any stax pieces or hard locks?
Clarify what kind:
- Light stax (tax effects, mild slowing)
- Heavy stax (resource denial, multiple overlapping pieces)
- Hard locks (players can’t meaningfully act)
This is a consent check as much as a power check.
8) How many board wipes and mass resets?
- Zero wipes plays differently than “I run seven wraths.”
- Also: are they typical wraths, or “reset the whole universe” effects?
9) How well does your deck recover?
Look for:
- Strong card draw engines
- Graveyard recursion
- Command-zone value
- Redundancy
A deck that rebuilds instantly after a wipe is effectively faster than it looks.
10) Any “table-warping” cards or commanders we should expect?
This is the “warning label” question.
You don’t need to list 30 cards. Just mention the stuff that changes what everyone else has to do:
- Resource engines that snowball
- Free interaction
- Cards that shut off common play patterns
- Wincons that happen from hand
Interpreting Answers: A Fast Read
You can get a clean match by looking for clusters:
Likely battlecruiser / low-power table
- Win threat turn 8+
- Few or no tutors
- Minimal stack interaction
- Little or no fast mana
- Combos rare or very slow
Likely upgraded / tuned casual table
- Win threat around turn 6–8
- A few tutors
- Real interaction exists
- Some fast mana, not a pile
- Combos might exist, but not hyper-compact
Likely high-power table
- Win threat around turn 4–6
- Multiple tutors and engines
- Cheap interaction suite
- Fast mana and free spells show up
- Combos are compact and protected
Likely cEDH table
- Win can happen very early
- Efficiency-first deckbuilding
- Heavy stack interaction
- Compact win lines, redundancy, and protection
If you want the pregame version that sounds polite, not clinical, use MTG Commander Pregame Scripts: Copy/Paste Rule 0 Prompts for Any Pod (internal).
Example Answers (so you can hear what “good” sounds like)
Example A: Upgraded combat deck
- Wincon: “Go wide and Overrun”
- Threat: “Turn 8-ish”
- Tutors: “One”
- Fast mana: “Just Sol Ring”
- Interaction: “A few removal spells, no counters”
- Combos: “None”
- Stax: “None”
- Wipes: “Two”
- Recovery: “Some draw, not insane”
- Warning label: “I do have Craterhoof”
Example B: High-power value combo
- Wincon: “Two-card combo with backup plan”
- Threat: “Turn 5–6”
- Tutors: “Several”
- Fast mana: “Yes”
- Interaction: “A lot, including counters”
- Combos: “Yes, compact”
- Stax: “Light”
- Wipes: “One or two”
- Recovery: “Very strong”
- Warning label: “Free interaction, strong draw engines”
Example C: cEDH
- Wincon: “Compact win line on the stack”
- Threat: “Any turn”
- Tutors: “Yes”
- Fast mana: “Yes”
- Interaction: “Heavy”
- Combos: “Yes”
- Stax: “Depends”
- Wipes: “Not many”
- Recovery: “Strong”
- Warning label: “Assume everything legal is on the table”
FAQs
Do I have to answer these exactly?
No. Ranges are fine. The goal is expectation matching, not decklist disclosure.
What if someone lies?
You can’t stop that with a checklist. You stop it by choosing not to play with them again.
Are these questions only for strangers?
They’re most useful for strangers, but they also help regular groups when someone brings a new build.
Does this replace Rule 0?
This is Rule 0, just in a more useful form.
Can I use this for league nights or events?
Yes, and you probably should. Anything with prizes tends to distort behavior, so clarity matters.
Wrap Up
If your pod keeps having “oops, wrong power level” games, stop asking for numbers and start asking these 10 questions.
Then use the answer everyone forgets is allowed in Commander: switch decks.