Today's blog posting is going to be something completely different. It is going to be my chance to go on about what is currently annoying me whilst playing Commander. Let me first state that the majority of my Commander games are played online using Cockatrice as it is free and I do not have the resources to make playing Commander on MODO a reality. If you would like reasons for this please feel free to contact me and we will discuss is off-post.
Commander is currently, in my most humble opinion, the most fun format for playing Magic: the Gathering. The standard environment is stale and clinical, where Squadron Hawks and Jace the Mind Sculptor rule the roost. Extended is fun, but also still has too many dominant decks. Legacy and Vintage are just way too expensive to get into ... and most games are over before they have really had a chance to get going. Commander is a format with 99 cards of pure randomness and fun.
Well almost ...
Commander is meant to be all about the fun and social interaction aspect of Magic. To quote Sheldon Menery from one of his articles on the Star City Games website:
"The other mindset you’re going to have to get around is the idea of “breaking the format,” which is completely valid in competitive formats. In fact, you have considerable incentive to do so. Not so in EDH. The format is already broken. Especially if you’re playing Black, with all the Tutors, you can probably combo out reliably on turn 3 or 4 every game. If you want to experience the depth of EDH, resist that urge. At best, you’ll get bored quickly with the deck. At worst, you’ll find yourself ostracized from your local group since you’re not so much playing EDH as goldfishing. The deck you want to build is the one that is both playable and social.
The real thing some people fail to understand is that you don’t need to kill everyone every game in order to win. Winning in EDH is simply having a great time. It’s participating in games that are something interesting and special. That’s why “Group Hug” decks have gotten popular in EDH circles."
... and these ...
I think what is and isn't in the spirit of EDH can be summed up like this:
EDH: Hive Mind/Warp World.
Not EDH: Hive Mind/Pact of the Titan.
-- Sheldon “EDH Godfather” Menery, DCI Level 5 Judge
Some more wise words on Commander:
"Find stuff that makes you giggle. Put it in deck."
Toby Elliott, DCI Level 5 Judge
This brings me back to my soapbox. All too often these days I am running into decks running infinite combos (Earthcraft/Squirrel Nest), griefer cards (Armageddon) or really anti-social combos (Crucible of Worlds/Strip Mine). Hannah decks recursing the Filigree Angel and running Darksteel Forge are in my opinion bordering on being anti-Commander too. It appears as though the social aspect of the game is being sidelined and the win-at-all-costs mentality has started to pervade the realms of Commander. And this saddens me greatly.
For those people who find it necessary to exhibit this kind of anti-social (borderline sociopathic) behaviour, please don't join online games flagged as being casual but rather join games marked as competitive. Stop ruining the fun for the rest of us.
I am an avid Magic the Gathering player, and have been since Revised, and have now become a Commander addict due to the complete randomness and insanity that often ensue over the course of a game. I do not want this to change so am appealing to all of you players out there to please put the fun back into Commander. Keep your turn 4 kill decks, infinite combo decks and griefer cards for those environments in which their play is encouraged.
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