I haven't yet found the right mix to make my Hermit deck competitive in head-to-head games, nor in multi-player games. So I decided to have a go at turning it into a Commander deck. I removed all the duplicates, added some new cards from the recent Commander series, added some basic land to bring up a 60:40 balance between spells:land, and viola.
The Hermit, is my 10 year work in progress to create a 3-color creatureless deck. Now in commander, I have to have a creature to act as commander, and Oloro fit the bill perfectly. He can just sit in the command zone the whole game giving me 2 life every turn. Without creatures, the deck relies HEAVILY on enchantments and artifacts to defend itself. A large number of creature removing instants and sorceries, and a slew of mill cards (which is the only viable way the deck can win the game...by burning my opponent/s libraries).
The several life gaining spells and automatic effects, along with the large number of draw cards, should keep me alive long enough to deal with at least one opponent. The original theme of the Hermit, was to 1) make myself an unimposing threat (with no creatures, no damaging effects), so in a multiplayer format, other players will be more threatening, and therefor a higher priority to defeat; 2) make myself an undesirable target (making my opponent tap mana to attack me, preventing at least part of all damage sustained); and 3) punish creatures who dare attacking me (by injuring them, removing them from the game, turning them into walls, or otherwise obliterating them). In effect, I want my opponents to fight among themselves, until I get my full defenses in play. Once established, and barring MASS artifact/enchantment destruction, any opponent who dares make me an enemy, will soon see his library become his graveyard and then remove them from the game.
When I originally created this deck, there was no such thing as hexproof or shroud, and few creatures had that level of protection. Currently, there are quite a few creatures that could become foils to this deck's principle creature removal tactics. I need to playtest it against different decks to see how effective it really is. The sideboard is made up of cards I thought I could live without (cutting the number down to 100), but if playtesting reveals the need for either more damage, more mana generation, more draws, or more healing, I'll adjust with those extra cards.
There is no combat phase with this deck. No creatures = no combat. So the primary task early is to get as many defenses as possible in play, as soon as possible. Generate mana fast to cast big spells, gain life (with Oloro, if nothing else) and draw, draw, draw. Don't antagonize other players. Soak damage early, but if defenses can't be brought into play fast enough...start the mill. The counters and creature removals in this deck (without the benefit of multiple copies) are fairly rare...so hold on to them until a really threatening spell is cast. There are enough mass-creature destruction spells in the deck capable of leveling the playing field, that you shouldn't feel too threatened by single creatures or even a few. Only burn a "destroy all creatures" against a single threat...if that threat is INCREDIBLY threatening.