Midrange decks are a dominating force in cEDH. All the resources a Commander player could ask for, combined together with the resiliency of interaction and a long-term gameplan, make for a potent and popular archetype.
For this guide, we'll be showing you the ins and outs of how to play midrange in cEDH. We'll look at the top commanders, best cards, and unique win conditions popular across midrange decks.

Midrange is an archetype of cEDH gameplay designed around two key concepts: resiliency and flexibility.
Midrange has existed for as long as cEDH has been around, and it shows no signs of disappearing any time soon.
From age-old decks like TnT to freshly-brewed newcomers like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kefka, Court Mage" href="#" target="_blank">Kefka, Court Mage</a>, midrange is everywhere.
If you want to play cEDH, then you have to know how this strategy works - either to pilot it yourself, or play against it.
Keep your eyes up, your mana open, and the word "trigger" at the ready. Good luck in your matches, and thanks for reading!
Capable of repeatedly pushing win attempts throughout the game, usually in the mid-to-late turns (turns three-plus), midrange decks support themselves with consistent, gradual resource accrual and hearty disruption packages.
These decks aren't trying to win first, but they also aren't trying to stop their opponents from progressing, either.
Instead, midrange is all about window shopping: surviving the early-game turbo turns, then launching forward.

<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tymna the Weaver"></div></div>
On her own, Tymna may not look like a whole lot at first glance. For , this 2/2 Human Cleric with lifelink offers the promise of some card advantage, if you can manage to get through with some creatures each combat.
With no evasion and a small statline, it's easy to dismiss Tymna as ineffective. Afterall, many of the best creatures in cEDH are defined by their immediate relevancy, and Tymna is far from immediate...at least, on her own, that is.
Crucially, Tymna is from the batch of cEDH commanders with the partner mechanic, allowing you to run two different legendary creatures in the command zone.
It's this one extra bonus on Tymna that absolutely breaks the card as a commander, as she'll never be on her own.
From helming Blue Farm alongside <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kraum, Ludevic&#039;s Opus" href="#" target="_blank">Kraum, Ludevic&#039;s Opus</a>, to the TnT team-up with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thrasios, Triton Hero" href="#" target="_blank">Thrasios, Triton Hero</a>, Tymna isn't just an ok engine - she's also an easy way to add on two critical colors to a deck's color identity.
When added to green, for example, Tymna takes unblocked mana dorks and turns them into reliable card advantage.
When in red, she provides a fall back plan for when the faster spells fizzle out. When in blue, she's another layer in the <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rhystic Study" href="#" target="_blank">Rhystic Study</a>-based engine lock.

<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Thrasios, Triton Hero"></div></div>
Speaking of partners, next up on our list is the other half of TnT: <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thrasios, Triton Hero" href="#" target="_blank">Thrasios, Triton Hero</a>.
Unlike Tymna, Thrasios here is a compact engine all by himself - if you have to spend, that is.
Breaking down the card and its role in cEDH, Thrasios is a legendary 1/3 Merfolk Wizard for with the activated ability ": Scry 1, then reveal the top card of your library. If it's a land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped. Otherwise, draw a card."
Four mana is a lot to ask for a single card, but - when backed up by mana dorks, cost reducers like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Training Grounds" href="#" target="_blank">Training Grounds</a>, and untappers like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Seedborn Muse" href="#" target="_blank">Seedborn Muse</a> - Thrasios can quickly become a potent source of both mana and card advantage, cEDH's two most prized resources.
Additionally, Thrasios also has no restrictions on when or how often he can be activated, meaning that his activated ability is also an infinite mana outlet.

<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy"></div></div>
On to cEDH's biggest mana deck, it's time to talk about Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy - one of the closest things to high-powered casual that the format has to offer.
For , Kinnan is a 2/2 legendary Human Druid with two devastating abilities. First off, whenever you tap a nonland permanent for mana, add an additional one mana of any type that permanent produced.
Secondly, you can pay to look at the top seven cards of your library and reveal a non-Human creature from among them.
Put that card onto the battlefield, and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
As long as Magic is printing big creatures in Simic that draw cards and/or make mana, Kinnan is going to be popular and powerful.
Not only does Kinnan aid in the mana production necessary to cast (or find via his activated ability) these potent creatures, but so too does he support spell-agnostic gameplay.
Once enough mana is on board, Kinnan can just pass the turn, activate his ability in an endstep however many times it can afford, and win from there - no spell-casting required.

<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin"></div></div>
Our first (and only) red commander is none other than <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin" href="#" target="_blank">Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin</a> - a deceptively potent card advantage engine that also enables a one-card combo.
For , Ob Nixilis is a legendary 4/3 Demon creature with flying, trample, and "Whenever one or more opponents each lose exactly 1 life, put a +1/+1 counter on Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin. Exile the top card of your library. Until your next end step, you may play that card."
Despite a trigger condition that seems niche at first, Ob Nixilis is actually a card that is rapidly enabled by some of the most commonly played cards in all of cEDH: fetch lands.
Whenever an opponent goes to crack a fetch (which might as well be whenever an opponent plays a land), Ob Nixilis will get a trigger.
Similarly, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Necropotence" href="#" target="_blank">Necropotence</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ad Nauseam" href="#" target="_blank">Ad Nauseam</a> are incredibly powerful and popular bursts of card advantage which are played across black cEDH decks, and Ob Nixilis parasitizes those card in a way that no other deck can even dream of.
Each Necropotence activation grants Ob Nixilis a trigger, as does each one-drop revealed off of Ad Nauseam.
Moving to unique win conditions, Ob Nixilis also has a one-card thanks to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="All Will Be One" href="#" target="_blank">All Will Be One</a>, provided you have a way to start the chain reaction (i.e. put a +1/+1 counter on Ob Nixilis).

<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tivit, Seller of Secrets"></div></div>
Our last midrange contender is the closest to hard control that cEDH has to offer, without pivoting to stax, and that is Tivit, Seller of Secrets.
For , Tivit is a 6/6 legendary Sphinx Rogue with flying and ward , as well as the trigger ability "Whenever Tivit enters the battlefield or deals combat damage to a player, starting with you, each player votes for evidence or bribery.
For each evidence vote, investigate. For each bribery vote, creature a Treasure token." To further support this ability, Tivit also breaks the way voting normally works, allowing you to vote an additional time.
Rather than providing early support a-la Kinnan, Tivit is a deck that sits back, rests on the power of its color identity, and then invokes its commander when it's time to close out the game.
Pairing Tivit with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Time Sieve" href="#" target="_blank">Time Sieve</a> allows you to to take infinite turns (provided you still have all three opponents alive), but until then Tivit does what Esper Midrange does best: searches for <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rhystic Study" href="#" target="_blank">Rhystic Study</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mystic Remora" href="#" target="_blank">Mystic Remora</a>, counters spells, and waits.

<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rhystic Study" href="#" target="_blank">Rhystic Study</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mystic Remora" href="#" target="_blank">Mystic Remora</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Esper Sentinel" href="#" target="_blank">Esper Sentinel</a>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Rhystic Study"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Mystic Remora"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Esper Sentinel"></div></div>
As cEDH has become a slower format, so too have the bevy of excellent draw engines become more and more common place across all archetypes - midrange, turbo, and stax.
However, no strategy benefits quite as from these cards as midrange. The midrange goal is to win gradually, after all, and no card rewards you for the game going long more than Rhystic Study.

<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Orcish Bowmasters"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Drannith Magistrate"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ranger-Captain of Eos"></div></div>
In order to capitalize on its plethora of resources, midrange decks also take time to slow the pay of play through gradual removal (such as the picking off of creatures by Orcish Bowmasters), the stopping of combos (such as Drannith Magistrate's prohibition of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Underworld Breach" href="#" target="_blank">Underworld Breach</a> loops), and the silencing of win attempts (such as through cracking a Ranger-Captain at just the right time).
The name of the game with midrange is time, and these are the cards that buy it.

<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="The One Ring"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Seedborn Muse"></div></div>
Finally, midrange decks also bring with them some of cEDH's more mana-intensive engines, cards which are either too expensive for other decks or which take too much time to get off the ground.
The One Ring, for example, is an excellent card if you can tap it three or more times.
Otherwise, it's just a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Harmonize" href="#" target="_blank">Harmonize</a> (or worse), and no one plays that card in cEDH. Similarly, Seedborn Muse generates an inordinate amount of value, if you have an outlet to churn all that mana into.

Outside of cEDH's standard win conditions - <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thassa&#039;s Oracle" href="#" target="_blank">Thassa&#039;s Oracle</a> plus <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tainted Pact" href="#" target="_blank">Tainted Pact</a>/<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Demonic Consultation" href="#" target="_blank">Demonic Consultation</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Underworld Breach" href="#" target="_blank">Underworld Breach</a> plus any of its many packages - the midrange suite is primarily backed-up by infinite mana combos.
Discounting commander-specific interactions, there are four popular options.

<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hazel&#039;s Brewmaster"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Devoted Druid"></div></div>
As a starting condition for this combo, Devoted Druid has to be in your graveyard. This allows Hazel's Brewmaster's enters-trigger to exile Devoted Druid, creating a Food token that has the additional activated abilities of ": Add ," as well as "Put a -1/-1 counter on this permanent: Untap it."
From here, you can tap and untap the Food to make infinite , as an infinite amount of -1/-1 counters doesn't matter for a noncreature permanent.

<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Devoted Druid"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Swift Reconfiguration"></div></div>
Similar to the Brewmaster option above, this combo also seeks to make infinite mana via a noncreature Devoted Druid, this time by enchanting an on-the-battlefield Devoted Druid with the enchantment Swift Reconfiguration.
This enchantment causes Devoted Druid to become a Vehicle artifact and lose all other card types.

<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hullbreaker Horror"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tidespout Tyrant"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Sol Ring"></div></div>
For this combo, all you need to get off the ground is Hullbreaker Horror (or the less-common Tidespout Tyrant), plus two mana rocks which, together, are mana positive: <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sol Ring" href="#" target="_blank">Sol Ring</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Grim Monolith" href="#" target="_blank">Grim Monolith</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mox Amber" href="#" target="_blank">Mox Amber</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mox Opal" href="#" target="_blank">Mox Opal</a>, etc.
Simply resolve the big blue creature of choice, then cast a spell, which will cause a trigger from the creature to go onto the stack, returning one of your mana rocks to hand.
Replay the newly-untapped mana rock, which will generate another trigger, bouncing the other mana rock. From there, rinse and repeat.

<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Abdel Adrian, Gorion&#039;s Ward"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Animate Dead"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Sol Ring"></div></div>
Just like our first combo, this last combo requires a little bit of setup, as Abdel Adrian needs to be in a graveyard for this to function.
From there, enchant it with any Animate Dead-esque enchantment (<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Necromancy" href="#" target="_blank">Necromancy</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dance of the Dead" href="#" target="_blank">Dance of the Dead</a> also work), and Abdel will come back from the dead, placing its enters-trigger on the stack.
Use this to exile the animate enchantment, plus any other important nonland permanents (i.e. mana rocks).
This will cause Abdel to die, since the enchantment left play. When that happens, the second part of Abdel's ability will trigger, bringing all of the exiled permanents back into play.
Put the reanimator enchantment back on Abdel, then repeat the loop until you want to stop.
Every time the exiled permanents come back, you can tap any mana rocks exiled this way, which is where the infinite mana comes from.

EDHREC Guide to cEDH Midrange

<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rhystic Study|wot|71" href="#" target="_blank">Rhystic Study</a> | Art by <a href="https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CFuzichoco%E2%80%9D&amp;unique=art" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fuzichoco</a> 
Finals that last eleven hours; games that are decided by word of mouth - not cards in play; and format-warping staples with no chance of being banned. cEDH has it all. Why? Because cEDH is not a format, no matter how much we pretend it is.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Rhystic Study|j22|114"></div></div>
No sane multiplayer tournament-format would keep this card.
<h2>Commander Is the Format</h2>
Taking a step back, what defines a format? Is it the spirit of the players? How about the metagame - the pool of decks that players expect to see when they show up to play? These two things are often cited as the defining characteristics of cEDH: the competitive nature of games and the rich, standardized set of decks that routinely dominate tables.
The cold truth of the matter, however, is that neither of these qualities constitute a format. Rather, formats are defined entirely by the deckbuilding restrictions in place, from which all other qualities emerge.
Looking at cEDH this way, the truth of its existence is readily laid bare: cEDH isn't a format, but Commander certainly is.
Commander has rules for deck construction and a regulated banlist. Competitive Commander, meanwhile, doesn't have any strict augmentations to distinguish it from the rest of Commander. Certainly, some cards are powercrept out of the metagame and others take on new lives as auto-includes, but that doesn't mean there's actually any rules enforcing that difference.
Looking to the newly-developed bracket system for Commander, we can see that Wizards of the Coast has actually doubled down on this Commander-cEDH linkage in recent time; there is no difference to the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/game-changers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Game Changer</a> inclusion number, nor any other distinguishing guidance, between Bracket 4 - colloquially called "High Power" - and Bracket 5, cEDH.
Speaking of brackets, Commander is certainly an odd format with divisions within it, make no mistake about that. However, a play-pattern division is fundamentally different from a format-cleaving structural division, the likes of which comprise the separation between formats such as Legacy and Modern.
Commander's bracket system is advisory, flexible, and designed to ease in communication across play environments all the while maintaining the overall spirit of Commander, that is, a multiplayer experience full of politicking and player self-expression.
<h2>cEDH and Commander's Baggage</h2>
So, now that we've established that cEDH and Commander are one and the same, what does that mean in terms of format execution? To start, let's go back to Commander's earliest days and trace the format through to the modern day.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Nicol Bolas"></div></div>
Putting the "Elder Dragon" in "Elder Dragon Highlander" since Day 1.
By and large, Commander has been a casual format since its very beginning. Initially dreamed up by a group of judges as a way to play Magic as a group in between competitive events, Commander was the format where garbage rares and fan-favorites could mix and mingle, with inordinately broken cards primarily being permitted thanks to the randomness inherent in a 100-card, singleton format.
The goal of Commander wasn't to win fast or decisively - it was to serve as a social exercise.
This mindset - prioritizing fun above competitive reasonableness - also serves as the guiding philosophy for the Commander banlist. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Shahrazad" href="#" target="_blank">Shahrazad</a> isn't a powerful card, but it is miserable to play against. The Moxen, meanwhile, might not be miserable in and of themselves, but they would be so ubiquitous that they'd encroach upon the individuality that Commander seeks to spearhead.
One <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Arcane Signet" href="#" target="_blank">Arcane Signet</a> has already been decried as a design mistake by Wizards, so it's easy to see how some of the game's most devoted players would have felt similarly about <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mox Pearl" href="#" target="_blank">Mox Pearl</a> and the like all those years ago.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Sol Ring"></div></div>
At least Sol Ring is accessible...right?
Looking at the contemporary banlist for Commander, we can see that this focus on fun continues to dominate. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Grand Arbiter Augustin IV" href="#" target="_blank">Grand Arbiter Augustin IV</a>, for example, isn't a particularly powerful card; believe me, I spent years trying to make it work in cEDH. However, it is an incredibly unfun card.
Resolving good ol' GAAIV means that you get to play more Magic and your opponents get to play less. The result? It may not have been banned, but by putting GAAIV on the Game Changers list it has effectively been locked behind the gates of probable playability: not powerful enough for the upper brackets, and too miserable for the lower.
By prioritizing casual fun over competitive reasonableness, Commander enshrined in its construction a clear trade off, one which continues to plague competitive circles: in exchange for players having maximal freedom to play as they like, players are required to police themselves.
In the case of cEDH - the constituency of Commander which tosses self-regulation to the wind and hyper-fixates on emulating the competitive experience - this means that players are forced into the awkward situation of playing cards which undoubtedly increase their win-rate while simultaneously enshrining a miserable play experience.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Nadu, Winged Wisdom"></div></div>
Remember me?
In truly competitive formats - Standard, Modern, Legacy, etc. - Wizards of the Coast takes an active role in maintaining format health through the proactive banning of cards. Rarely, if ever, does such a thing happen in Commander; cards often have to be both oppressive and miserable in order for any sort of supervision to be effectuated.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tymna the Weaver" href="#" target="_blank">Tymna the Weaver</a>, for example, perfectly displays this issue. In casual Commander, this card is an uninspiring creature which occasionally serves as a Commander for go-wide multicolor strategies. The partner mechanic was certainly problematic, but there's nothing oppressive or miserable about this card which would cause Wizards to care about its role across the majority of Commander.
In cEDH, however, Tymna is everywhere. The card has served as one of the premier commanders since it was printed, cementing the role of Orzhov+ strategies as among cEDH's best. It's simply too easy, too ubiquitous, and too consuming.
A competitive banlist would have at least been skeptical of keeping Tymna around for as long as cEDH has, but Commander - at its very foundations - doesn't run a competitive banlist.
<h2>Politics and Competition</h2>
Moving away from the banlist, Commander also brought with it something no other format contains - politics. By structuring games as a everyone-vs-everyone else, rather than the two-vs-two structure of Two-Headed Giant, Commander further randomized the outcomes of its games by allowing for persuasion, coordination, lying, and punting.
Ask any cEDH veteran - there will be plenty of games you lose not because you couldn't win, but because the table couldn't sufficiently coordinate a response to some other threat.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Telepathy"></div></div>
I've lost count of the number of times showing my hand has actually won me a game.
This social experience is the hallmark of Commander - even more so than its deckbuilding restrictions - but it's also terribly difficult to regulate in any sort of constructive manner.
There's no rules against a salty player making a spite play, and the best a tournament organizer can do to try and reign in heated debate is throw a warning at a player should they become vulgar or abusive. Nowhere else in Magic is the outcome of a game so closely tied to sportsmanship. When not appreciated properly - be it through a Multiplayer Rules Addendum or proper tournament organizer supervision - this hallmark can quickly become a stain.
As cEDH tournaments become more and more popular, so too do the number of incidents of strained politicking. Players have gotten ejected from tournaments because their debate turns into bullying mid-match. Even worse, sometimes players aren't given punitive measures for such behavior, and buffaloing fellow players becomes a rewarded strategy.
Commander has always been known for its long games, but that legacy is no justification for matches lasting eleven hours because players can't stop arguing over how to take a game action.
<h2>Wrapping Up and Moving Forward</h2>
If cEDH players really want to play a healthy, invigorating, and safe tournament format, then we need to be honest with ourselves about how the structural linkage to the umbrella format of Commander is doing more harm than good. Alternatively, if players prefer the current anarchic structure of cEDH which Commander bestows upon it, then we need to recognize that not all of our tournament wishes can be fully realized.
I enjoy playing broken cards as much as the next person; the explosivity of a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sol Ring" href="#" target="_blank">Sol Ring</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rhystic Study" href="#" target="_blank">Rhystic Study</a> in the same turn truly is unmatched. At the same time, however, you don't have to be a format expert to recognize that Rhystic Study is probably doing more harm than good.
Similarly, table talk is a wonderful part of Commander that I don't want to lose, but we absolutely need better regulations put into place about how players can interact with each other.
Commander is a wonderful format, and cEDH is full of enjoyable opportunities and exciting moments. There's a reason it's so many players' favorite way to play not just Commander, but Magic as a whole.
However, by cleaving cEDH from Commander, working towards more proactive banlist management, and instituting greater tournament regulation, then cEDH can truly flourish not just as a Commander-offshoot, but as its own fully-fledged format.

Harvey McGuinness

Harvey McGuinness

EDHREC Guide to cEDH Midrange

cEDH Has a Fatal Flaw

Building Vivi Ornitier for cEDH