As most people know, I do not enjoy the commander/edh format much. The biggest problem with the format to me is the expensive land fixing that is required. The format feels like a market prop more than a casual gaming experience. Given the fact that Magic the Gathering began as a wild magic format with few restrictions and smaller deck sizes, EDH feels extremely restrictive and costly. To me, Commander is my least favorite MTG format.
Unfortunately, many of my efforts at encouraging people to consider alternative gaming conditions have met with significant resistance and in order to accommodate the format, I have created a fairly inexpensive budget EDH deck which I call the OCD (Obligatory Commander Deck). One problematic area for me lies with the land fixing. I only have a single Orzhov Guildgate. However, trading allowed me to acquire a Drowned Catacomb and a Glacial Fortress to help bolster my land base. I run a thin land scheme at 35 lands, but I need to have something to play. In light of the thin land scheme, I have some ramp (Dark Steel Ingot), fixing (Rupture Spire, Shimian Grotto, Transguild Promenade), as well as a fetch in Pilgrim's Eye. I would not feel comfortable with an opening hand of less than 2 lands.
Now lets take a look at how this deck works or more simply how the Commander format does not.
Commander Abuse
A key element of commander is the ability to find a commander that can be abused. I have opted for Ertai, the Corrupted. As a commander Ertai is extremely cheap and as this build demonstrates highly abusable.
I've opted to include a host of creatures and enchantments with self-recursion so that I can easily sacrfice them and simply play them again giving me plenty of synergy with Ertai's countering ability. The protection scheme seems simple enough- just counter anything you do not like over and over again. Protecting Ertai with some form of hexproof or shroud is merely added bonus.
There is a risk that I will get stuck in a draw loop with a card like Avenging Angel (or Dark Revenant if you prefer), but to minimize that risk, I've included plenty of drawing power. While many commander decks rely on expensive tutoring schemes to dig up their win condition, I feel having an infinite hand size and scalable draw power should work just as well. If the Reliquary Tower or Spellbook are in play, I do not have to worry about the draw so much and I have Laboratory Maniac as a back up. In fact, drawing out is an alternative win-condition in this deck. Another alternative win-condition is poison. I consider it the shortest path to victory, so I've included it. Very few people run Leeches or Melira Slyvok.
Graveyard hate and abuse
Most commander decks abuse reanimation and turn their graveyards into their second libraries.
For that reason, I've included a lot of graveyard hating cards to punish reanimator style decks, even though many of my own creatures are self-recurring.
The emphasis is also on exiling creatures rather than removing them. Exiling cards is the only thing that approaches effective deck tech.
Protection Schemes
Many of my creatures are unblockable or hard to block, but many also require the protection that my artifacts and enchanments can provide by adding shroud and hexproof qualities to the creature.
Cutting Edge Tech
Just for the fun of it, I've tried to include some bestow creatures to see if I can bestow it on another creature. I think this could work well with the commander. It might simply be best to use enchantments, but this is a test run.
Areas for Improvement
Can this deck be better? Probably. Still, I feel it has all the elements to make it a decent Commander deck (which is to say a deck that cynically embodies the worst common features of commander that make the format and playing the format hard to enjoy). At the same time, it tries to avoid the wallet war and circumvent the cynical market forces that drive the format. Thus this qualifies as my:
Obligatory Commander Deck.
I'm still hoping people consider alternative formats like kitchen table casual formats, budget formats, Captain's Matches, or cubes.