It works best in a token-based shell with plenty of fodder to throw beneath your legendary creatures and enough bodies to maximize all the counters the Colonel spreads around
If youre looking for something a bit different or if black really appeals to you Krrik, Son of Yawgmoth is the ideal Life-fgain commander
Theres also a variety of cards that get larger as you sacrifice permanents, like Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher and Elenda, the Dusk Rose, which provide essential board presence as you churn through creatures on board
Its still Commander, but its a specific mindset and ruleset explicitly defined through Rule Zero, and it has been given the label of cEDH so players can easily find each other
A Meld card face up on the 'field or literally anywhere else has only the characteristics of the front face
Its not that hard to imagine a format in Modern where discard spells are good