A rule I always like to follow when building a commander deck, regardless of budget, is 'if the deck includes an infinite/game-winning combo in it, the combo MUST include the commander of the deck.' That way if I do decide to include some fun loops they all feel very deck specific and can't just be jammed anywhere.

Here are my 5 rules:

1. Build to the deck you want, not the deck that's "meta". Yes, maybe Energy Counters aren't as powerful as some other decks, but I think it's a fun concept and honestly it does work.

2. Don't be afraid to start over. Maybe you didn't realize you'd need more mana, or maybe you locked yourself into too tight of deckbuilding like I did with my WUBRG elementals deck (Horde of Notions as the commander, but Jegantha as Companion).

3. Mono-color isn't scary. This is one that I want to slap into people's brains. Everyone seems to think that mono colored decks are bad or scary. The thing is? you just haven't been building them right. You need the right Commander. Not every mono colored legendary is going to work. Look at what your color does well, and find something that does that well.

4. 35 lands minimum. Unless the deck requires less (I've managed, through careful testing, to get Goblins down to 30) you want 35 lands at a minimum. This gives you an approximate 1 land per 3 cards drawn on average.

5. Don't be afraid to experiment. Yes a mono-green spirit deck headed by Iname, Life Aspect isn't popular. Maybe that's because people overlook her. Prove them wrong!

Alternatively, if you know you absolutely need your commander out to function properly, make sure you pack enough spells to protect the commander or bring it back without commander tax.

When im building a deck, the first thing I do is put in 40 lands, and make it a big deal to take a land out. That way you aren't looking at all your cool engine cards and deciding which ones to keep, but you're looking at your NECESSARY lands and deciding how many you can afford to cut

I tend to be the primary target because of the commanders I play but its actually made me a much better deck builder. It forced me to build my decks to be more resilient so that I can play thru being the primary target

Comments per rule:
1- Play whatever commander U want to play, but be warned that Some are more hated than others and draw attention as such...
2- I put 3 pieces of non-creature removal,  3 of creature removal, and 2-3 boardwipes. I know I need to put in more
3- At least 1 graveyard hate per deck (bojuka bog is auto-include in every black deck for example)
4- Land count is more tricky. It depends on the mana curve, but I play 33-36 lands. Usually if I play 36 its because the deck doesn't include green. The best ramp is mana tutoring (agree No more  than sol ring and arcane in green) which is green, followed by Cost reduction (more cumulative), and then the rocks. But I do put 9-11 ramp cards in every deck.
5- the versatility depends on the commander a lot of the time, BUT if Ur commander could have more than 1 strategy, try to use either unorthodox strats, or focus Heavily on a strong strategy to prevent the opponents from stopping U

Awesome content as always, thank you for the great videos 👍🏻

well when Im playing a +1 +1 counter deck, I become the target after turn 3.

You mentioned Atraxa Voltron as odd, it was literally my first thought with those keywords and that proliferate ability. If you want one that's odd, I'm considering making an Atraxa Saga deck

The thing with your land counts is that if you look at the odds of drawing a land you're on par with what an aggro deck runs in other formats. That's really light when combo and midrange decks dominate commander. And if you have enough card draw to hit the lands, you have enough card draw that you're not going to be in a situation where you're getting screwed by topdecking a land. Instead, hitting every land drop means you can us that card advantage to double spell or even triple spell.

So, two things.
For one, I do also play very few lands in some of my decks, but that's because those decks are built to work on low land bases, either through super low curves or a lot of card draw/cantrips. I do actually think it's very important to make your land drops every turn for as long as you can in your average deck. So I do think in general if you're playing sub 35 lands, you wanna have your deck be built for it, in my case mostly by having enough card selection that you still hit your drops. If there's one thing I've learned in commander over the years it's that hitting your land drops is one of the best things to do to win mid to long games. Also, adding to that, I never cut lands for ramp. Hitting land drops and ramping are two different things. If I topdeck a Rampant Growth for turn without having a land in hand, that's two wasted mana.
And secondly, I kind of understand your patron's attitude of leaning into your colour's strengths. Yes, versatility is nice, but you will always have weak spots unless you're playing like 5c, and at a certain points you just have to pick your battles. And some decks do that by being hyperefficient with their removal, which Feed the Swarm isn't really. Not saying it's a bad card, just saying that I can see why it wouldn't be an autoinclude, depending on your deck.

One aspect of the deck to factor in when determining the mana curve is deck interaction, ie. A blue deck with a low curve still needs untapped mana to be efficient. Also, interaction of the Commander with activated abilities, Yuriko, Kenrith, Breya, Najeela, etc...

One thing I always try to keep in mind when building my commander decks is that the power level of the deck I'm building doesn't really matter. For example, I never run mother of runes unless I have specific reasons to because that card's annoying and I don't need to have the power level boost that it gives me. I usually only run Sol Ring in decks with more of a focus on mana rocks like my Kozilek deck, only mainly run hatebears in decks that are meant to have a lot of them, etc. Overall I'd say it's made my decks more well-rounded and balanced and realizing that it isn't a bad thing for my decks to be a bit weaker really changed the way I build decks.

I built a practice deck that was literally phylanth world sculpture and 99 basics. It has become one of my best decks and now that I’ve tweaked it to actually Having interaction and draw it wins way more than it should.

It’s just funny how simple it is and everyone just ignores you until its too late!

You're right, I think you're crazy having 33/34 lands as your standard! My sweet spot has been 37, as I've found that lets me hit lands every turn of the game. I suppose it depends how you build decks, but generally speaking a deck is going to be able to utilise having more mana, so having that accessible is important. Gives you much more staying power and influence in the late game where you have 10 mana on turn 10 as opposed to 7.

Resiliency, synergy, and fun are my deck building values!

I'm fairly intermediate in terms of mtg and this video really helped me build my first deck while it is a miirym deck lots of my friends play high power and it's really nice to be able to compete and play non precons thanks for the help❤

Feed The Swarm is absolutely a staple in Black or Dimir or Rakdos

the most important thing to add in a deck that I and my friends forgotten an embarrassing amount of times, add a win-con, just slot a triumph of the hoards or omniscience or something, just add another win con

I agree partly about the mana rocks. Sol ring and arcane signet are the only mana rocks I include in my green decks and I can easily see someone wanting to run mana crypt. I do understand where you’re coming from for sure! Taking out sol ring just sounds silly to me

Just wanted to leave a comment to say thank you so much for the amazing content that you’ve put out. I found your channel about a month ago and I cannot stop watching every single thing that you put out is informative and it helped me upgrade my existing decks and thinkcompletely differently about how I brew them. I’ve also saved a ton of magic cards because of all the old obscure cards that you highlight in your videos, keep up the good work.