This seems like pretty positive news all in all
Wizards have been designing cards for EDH
for a while now and now they just have an
official outlet to do so, its still a player
community run format so thats good.
Besides I've been wanting to build a BGW
graveyard EDH deck for a bit now and that
general seems pretty nice
I also like the deckbuilding challenge, but I think you are in the distinct minority on this.
At any rate, the challenge should be to build a consistent and fun deck that interacts with others. If you and your opponent(s) aren't having fun, you aren't playing properly.
The cardpool is inherently broken, winning the game/making infinite mana/comboing out is not at all difficult. The challenge is finding fun things to do that don't immediately win the game.
But the thing is that "I Win" cards don't win the game all by themselves. They may end the game suddenly, but they don't do it by themselves. A player running Coalition Victory has to assemble five colors worth of creatures and five basic land types on the board. He has to do this while telegraphing his intentions to any disruption that can blow up creatures, counter spells, or disrupt his mana base. He has to do this in a five-color deck while cramming in mana fixing, tutors, and drawpower without giving up so much threat density that the deck folds to a stiff breeze. A game with Coalition Victory is a tense battle of wills, and when the game ends with a successfully resolved Coalition Victory it certainly wasn't a win derived from just one card ending things in a sudden way. I've been on both sides of the table where CV is concerned, and it's fun either way. Same goes for any form of combo or sudden win situation.
I do agree that if you're running a deck that you know your friends hate (and I don't mean good natured hate, I mean that they actually don't find it fun to play against), then you're doing it wrong. I just don't see - at all - what's so inherently un-fun about cards that capstone a long game of cat-and-mouse revolving around them, especially in comparison to combos that end the game but only after about a half hour of comboing out in some complex process (there's a reason I'm slowly fazing out Eye of the Storm combos from two of my decks).
I'm most excited about the new generals in wedge colors. I've been saying to myself and my friends that Wizards should start designing generals directly for EDH use. Although monocolored generals can be fun and all, they can get one-dimensional real quick. I feel like EDH deck building really starts getting fun once you use multi-colored generals. Depending on multicolored legends to be released in normal sets post-Ravnica/Shadowmoor/Alara, however, didn't really seem very hopeful, so I started wondering how in the world we were going to get new multi-colored generals. I think Wrexial, the Risen Deep was an example of Wizards trying to directly include a general for EDH in a set, but I always felt like he stuck out like a sore thumb flavor-wise in the context of the set. I'm glad that Wizards is now using this new outlet to directly release new multicolored legends for EDH use, especially for the underrepresented wedges. I think even designing some new shard or dual-colored generals wouldn't hurt either, but that could be in store for the future.
By the way, those wedges actually have names (remember Ana, Ceta, Dega, Necra, and Raka from Apocalypse?). It's about time for them to be dusted off and revived!
As for the format name change, you can probably tell that I'm still going to call it EDH. The name change is really more for Wizards than for us, so I don't really take it that seriously. If you don't want to call it Commander, then just keep calling it EDH!
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Currently Playing:
Modern:
UBR Grixis Twin
Legacy:
Manaless Dredge
Pauper:
UR Nivix Blitz
EDH:
RGW Mayael the Anima ~ G Jolrael, Empress of Beasts ~ GWU Roon of the Hidden Realm ~ WU Kangee, Aerie Keeper ~ WU Daxos of Meletis ~ WUR Ruhan of the Fomori ~ UR Jhoira of the Ghitu
WUBRG Sliver Queen ~ WUBRG Sliver Overlord ~ BG Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord ~ B Iname, Death Aspect
Actually, I've just thought of one potential bad side effect of this. I wonder if this will increase the price of "casual' rares. I know there are a few like Divinity of Pride that already carry a rather high price tag for a casual card, and the only reason I can figure is that it's good in EDH? I hope I don't end up having to dish out a lot of $$$ for cards that used to be casual and junk-binder fodder because EDH becomes a well-known format and people start buying up and hoarding EDH staple cards.
it shouldn't, people already hoard edh staples.
Divinity is stupid in edh becasue life totals start at 40, and no there is no errata to these effects. Also dumb: Felidar soverign and serra ascendent.
Anyway only reason I'd be mad at wizards is EDH is pretty much all I play these days, meaning I'd want a set of these probably, meaning $175 down the drain.
Wedge generals is brilliant, there are only 1 general in magic for several of the wedge combinations. 4 color would've taken alot of effort on the mana to be playable.
4. Oversized cards are meh and lame. Are you going put your oversized general on the bottom of your library when it's treated with Hallowed Burial?
The oversized cards are just oversized copies of regular-sized cards also in the deck. This way you have a regular-size version in case your general gets shuffled into your library and an oversized version for whatever you want.
1. The name change is just stupid and offensive to me - its pure commercialisation. I'll be damned if I ever call EDH "Commander". Sheeesh.
2. There is a lot of high cost - high effect cards in the new expansions these days, that can work wonders in EDH. Why print more??
3. Unless the 51 new cards will be printed in future expansions - have you thought how rare and sought for they will be??? There will probably be less of this precons sold than Alfa or Beta, or I don't know... Not so much anyway. If there will be any really good cards, they're prices could skyrocket easily.
4. Oversized cards are meh and lame. Are you going put your oversized general on the bottom of your library when it's treated with Hallowed Burial?
I can probably only like the new generals.
These are some of the most stupid reasons I have ever heard. Let's go down the list:
1. If you want to give Wizards of the Coast the several million dollars it would take to buy the rights to the "Highlander" name from 20th Century Fox or Thorn EMI or whomever owns the rights to it, then you can have your precious old name back. Otherwise, that would be ILLEGAL.
2. You clearly haven't read the article even slightly. Wizards has been waiting for a chance to print exclusive multiplayer-minded cards for years. This was their chance to do so. Either they were going to do it now or do it next year, it has nothing to do with the current quality of cards. WotC is printing exclusive product meant to cater to the people who love EDH and you are going to complain about them wanting to try something different?
3. You honestly think that WotC did not think about exactly that? They have released a new multiplayer game every year for the last two years (three including Commander in June) and you think this will be the only time these get printed? You're delusional.
4. Again, you show you simply know nothing about the actual product. You will get 3 Legendary creatures in each deck: The corresponding Planar Chaos Legendary Dragon and two completely new Legendary Creatures. You will get ALL THREE OF THESE as regular cards IN ADDITION to the oversized foils. You use the oversized foil because it's nifty (or you trade it away) and use the regular-sized cards for shuffling away/bouncing to your hand.
I wonder, are there actual card sleeves and whatnot that can store oversized cards? I definitely have to get all of the oversized dragons for my collection, but I don't know how I'm going to protect them or display them.
I wonder, are there actual card sleeves and whatnot that can store oversized cards? I definitely have to get all of the oversized dragons for my collection, but I don't know how I'm going to protect them or display them.
Since, unlike Planechase and Archenemy, you don't have to shuffle your oversized general cards, you could just get some 3.5x5 picture frames.
I wonder, are there actual card sleeves and whatnot that can store oversized cards? I definitely have to get all of the oversized dragons for my collection, but I don't know how I'm going to protect them or display them.
There are. Ultra Pro makes a postcard sleeve that's a little bit tall, but the perfect width for Planechase and Archenemy cards. Wizards will probably stick with that size for the generals too. They also fit nicely into four pocket pages if you prefer the binder method.
The real trick will be carrying them around. Other than those deck boxes that came out for Planechase, I haven't seen anything in the right size.
1. The name change is just stupid and offensive to me - its pure commercialisation. I'll be damned if I ever call EDH "Commander". Sheeesh.
2. There is a lot of high cost - high effect cards in the new expansions these days, that can work wonders in EDH. Why print more??
3. Unless the 51 new cards will be printed in future expansions - have you thought how rare and sought for they will be??? There will probably be less of this precons sold than Alfa or Beta, or I don't know... Not so much anyway. If there will be any really good cards, they're prices could skyrocket easily.
4. Oversized cards are meh and lame. Are you going put your oversized general on the bottom of your library when it's treated with Hallowed Burial?
I can probably only like the new generals.
1. As already said, they had to call it something else for trademark reasons. I'll bet Commander will catch on within the next year.
2. Why not? It doesn't hurt. And there's a scarcity of multiplayer-only friendly cards anyway, which seems to be what they are aiming towards.
3. Who says they won't reprint these cards again? You do know how small Alpha and Beta print runs are right? They are tiny. Most likely, most of these cards won't be playable in eternal formats anyway so the demand won't be that high.
4. You have the oversized ones and the normal ones. Leave the oversized ones out for general use and use the normal one if it gets stuck in your library/hand. Not hard to do, especially since both versions will come with the precon.
Really, this is a great announcement. There's really no reason to complain about the name change, that doesn't really effect anything at all. New generals and new cards is absolutely great though. I'll be picking up as many of these as I can.
I just wanted to clarify because it seems people aren't comprehending:
Each deck will come with 3 Legendary Creatures for use as the Commander (in both over-sized foil and regular versions). They will each come with a singular Planar Chaos Legendary Dragon to match the colors and 2 completely new and exclusive Legendary Creatures. That's TEN brand new generals in total! Two for each wedge when most of us have had to get by with only one!
I fully encourage Wizards to print more insane legendary creatures, and in fact, I think that from now on, all Legendary creatures should have wacky, build-around-me abilities. I just really looked at that Centaur guy, and wow, he's really cool.
The Planar Chaos dragons were a throwback to the Invasion dragons, who played a part in the Phyrexian invasion storyline. The Planar Chaos dragons, however, never got any backstory, or even enough characterization to warrant a wiki entry. I wounder if they will add some in the Commander cards?
Pretty much all positive news. They've missed the mark a few times in the last couple months; nice to see this one actually be much better than we expected. Looking forward to picking this up, and knowing this is coming will probably mean the end of my "should I get multiples of PDS: Fire +/- Lightning?" debate (hate to break this to you, WotC, but if you cut the price about $10 and released it as a nonfoil deck, you'd probably sell twice as many copies).
Also, since no one seems to have mentioned it yet, that unassigned artwork is BEASTLY. I seriously hope that's one of the WRB wedge generals.
I think this might be the impetus for me to finally put together a Commander deck; hell, I had a goofy Crap Rare Highlander deck together for years, and this is really just one step beyond that. Hooray for fun casual multiplayer format support! Now if we can just see some more Planechase support, I'll be on cloud nine.
This...this announcement is a wonderful thing for me. I only play ED-...Commander, and the idea of 10 all-new generals all at once released is simply making me gleeful. Toss in the 51 new cards, and I'll be WOTC's purchasing monkey forever.
Also, I agree with Breyfunk: Dredge/Graveyard shenanigans no longer need Teneb.
I dislike the name change. That said, I think the name change will be accepted by the player base at the same speed at which they did when they made type 1 into vintage and renamed type 2 as standard. That is to say, I don't think we are ever going to forget that our format is called EDH.
And anyone who wants to try calling it commander can go die in their basement.
as for the precons:
if the precons are good, lots of people will be running the same deck which would be lame.
And if the precons are bad, then the precons are bad-- also lame. But the new enemy tricolor generals seem neat. Its sort of unpleasant that the WBG one thats been previewed is only a 3/4. Doran was bigger and he always costed 3 mana the first time you casted him (and could inflict some serious beat down).
Wizards have been designing cards for EDH
for a while now and now they just have an
official outlet to do so, its still a player
community run format so thats good.
Besides I've been wanting to build a BGW
graveyard EDH deck for a bit now and that
general seems pretty nice
But the thing is that "I Win" cards don't win the game all by themselves. They may end the game suddenly, but they don't do it by themselves. A player running Coalition Victory has to assemble five colors worth of creatures and five basic land types on the board. He has to do this while telegraphing his intentions to any disruption that can blow up creatures, counter spells, or disrupt his mana base. He has to do this in a five-color deck while cramming in mana fixing, tutors, and drawpower without giving up so much threat density that the deck folds to a stiff breeze. A game with Coalition Victory is a tense battle of wills, and when the game ends with a successfully resolved Coalition Victory it certainly wasn't a win derived from just one card ending things in a sudden way. I've been on both sides of the table where CV is concerned, and it's fun either way. Same goes for any form of combo or sudden win situation.
I do agree that if you're running a deck that you know your friends hate (and I don't mean good natured hate, I mean that they actually don't find it fun to play against), then you're doing it wrong. I just don't see - at all - what's so inherently un-fun about cards that capstone a long game of cat-and-mouse revolving around them, especially in comparison to combos that end the game but only after about a half hour of comboing out in some complex process (there's a reason I'm slowly fazing out Eye of the Storm combos from two of my decks).
By the way, those wedges actually have names (remember Ana, Ceta, Dega, Necra, and Raka from Apocalypse?). It's about time for them to be dusted off and revived!
As for the format name change, you can probably tell that I'm still going to call it EDH. The name change is really more for Wizards than for us, so I don't really take it that seriously. If you don't want to call it Commander, then just keep calling it EDH!
I guess these mythics will be more mythic than normal mythics
it shouldn't, people already hoard edh staples.
Divinity is stupid in edh becasue life totals start at 40, and no there is no errata to these effects. Also dumb: Felidar soverign and serra ascendent.
Anyway only reason I'd be mad at wizards is EDH is pretty much all I play these days, meaning I'd want a set of these probably, meaning $175 down the drain.
Wedge generals is brilliant, there are only 1 general in magic for several of the wedge combinations. 4 color would've taken alot of effort on the mana to be playable.
The oversized cards are just oversized copies of regular-sized cards also in the deck. This way you have a regular-size version in case your general gets shuffled into your library and an oversized version for whatever you want.
These are some of the most stupid reasons I have ever heard. Let's go down the list:
1. If you want to give Wizards of the Coast the several million dollars it would take to buy the rights to the "Highlander" name from 20th Century Fox or Thorn EMI or whomever owns the rights to it, then you can have your precious old name back. Otherwise, that would be ILLEGAL.
2. You clearly haven't read the article even slightly. Wizards has been waiting for a chance to print exclusive multiplayer-minded cards for years. This was their chance to do so. Either they were going to do it now or do it next year, it has nothing to do with the current quality of cards. WotC is printing exclusive product meant to cater to the people who love EDH and you are going to complain about them wanting to try something different?
3. You honestly think that WotC did not think about exactly that? They have released a new multiplayer game every year for the last two years (three including Commander in June) and you think this will be the only time these get printed? You're delusional.
4. Again, you show you simply know nothing about the actual product. You will get 3 Legendary creatures in each deck: The corresponding Planar Chaos Legendary Dragon and two completely new Legendary Creatures. You will get ALL THREE OF THESE as regular cards IN ADDITION to the oversized foils. You use the oversized foil because it's nifty (or you trade it away) and use the regular-sized cards for shuffling away/bouncing to your hand.
My Blog About It
Can't wait for my new red-white-blue and red-green-blue generals.
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(Signature courtesy of Argetlam of Hakai Studios
Since, unlike Planechase and Archenemy, you don't have to shuffle your oversized general cards, you could just get some 3.5x5 picture frames.
I was hoping someone had made sleeves so I could put them in with the rest of my collection.
Really? I'll have to try to find a page or two, then.
Man I wish this release weren't so far off. I really, really want to know what is in these decks.
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There are. Ultra Pro makes a postcard sleeve that's a little bit tall, but the perfect width for Planechase and Archenemy cards. Wizards will probably stick with that size for the generals too. They also fit nicely into four pocket pages if you prefer the binder method.
The real trick will be carrying them around. Other than those deck boxes that came out for Planechase, I haven't seen anything in the right size.
1. As already said, they had to call it something else for trademark reasons. I'll bet Commander will catch on within the next year.
2. Why not? It doesn't hurt. And there's a scarcity of multiplayer-only friendly cards anyway, which seems to be what they are aiming towards.
3. Who says they won't reprint these cards again? You do know how small Alpha and Beta print runs are right? They are tiny. Most likely, most of these cards won't be playable in eternal formats anyway so the demand won't be that high.
4. You have the oversized ones and the normal ones. Leave the oversized ones out for general use and use the normal one if it gets stuck in your library/hand. Not hard to do, especially since both versions will come with the precon.
Really, this is a great announcement. There's really no reason to complain about the name change, that doesn't really effect anything at all. New generals and new cards is absolutely great though. I'll be picking up as many of these as I can.
Commander/EDH:
WU Hanna, Ship's Navigator WU
GW Saffi Eriksdotter GW
BW Selenia, Dark Angel BW
W Heliod, God of Sun W
Retired:
Jenara, Asura of War Thada Adel, Acquisitor Jaya Ballard, Task Mage Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero Lyzolda, the Blood Witch Akroma, Angel of Wrath Nath of the Gilt-Leaf Tajic, Blade of the Legion Selvala, Explorer Returned Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Tiny Leaders:
W Mangara of Corondor W
Each deck will come with 3 Legendary Creatures for use as the Commander (in both over-sized foil and regular versions). They will each come with a singular Planar Chaos Legendary Dragon to match the colors and 2 completely new and exclusive Legendary Creatures. That's TEN brand new generals in total! Two for each wedge when most of us have had to get by with only one!
My Blog About It
The Planar Chaos dragons were a throwback to the Invasion dragons, who played a part in the Phyrexian invasion storyline. The Planar Chaos dragons, however, never got any backstory, or even enough characterization to warrant a wiki entry. I wounder if they will add some in the Commander cards?
Also, since no one seems to have mentioned it yet, that unassigned artwork is BEASTLY. I seriously hope that's one of the WRB wedge generals.
I think this might be the impetus for me to finally put together a Commander deck; hell, I had a goofy Crap Rare Highlander deck together for years, and this is really just one step beyond that. Hooray for fun casual multiplayer format support! Now if we can just see some more Planechase support, I'll be on cloud nine.
UBDragonlord Silumgar WGKarametra, God of Harvests
BRUNekusar, the Mindrazer BGMazirek, Kraul Death Priest
URMelek, Izzet Paragon UGPrime Speaker Zegana
WUHanna, Ship's Navigator BWUSydri, Galvanic Genius
WUBRGSliver Queen RBBladewing the Risen
WBKarlov of the Ghost Council RGXenagos, God of Revels
GFreyalise, Llanowar's Fury RWAurelia, the Warleader
RIb Halfheart, Goblin Tactician BDrana, Liberator of Malakir
UAzami, Lady of Scrolls WNahiri, the Lithomancer
WBGDoran, the Siege Tower CEmrakul, the Promised End
Anyways, product looks very promising, new cards that AREN'T for standard is very interesting, I'll definitely be picking up a few of these.
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Also, I agree with Breyfunk: Dredge/Graveyard shenanigans no longer need Teneb.
*hoping the former*
I had a friend try it with Savra, it didn't work out too well. I hope you can do better.
I'm really excited about this announcement. I can finally play this format without having to spend a lot of money or proxy a bunch of cards.
Time to build the nasty dredge EDH deck, with, of course, a TON of G.Y. manipulation & G.Y. protection!!!
So much for sleep tonight...
And anyone who wants to try calling it commander can go die in their basement.
as for the precons:
if the precons are good, lots of people will be running the same deck which would be lame.
And if the precons are bad, then the precons are bad-- also lame. But the new enemy tricolor generals seem neat. Its sort of unpleasant that the WBG one thats been previewed is only a 3/4. Doran was bigger and he always costed 3 mana the first time you casted him (and could inflict some serious beat down).
Legacy:WUBG Jace Rock
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Sig by: heroes of the plane studios
"It was probably a lousy spell in the first place."
—Ertai, wizard adept
Legacy: UW Miracle, U MUC, UW StoneBlade, U Merfolk, R Burn, & UB Reanimator
EDH: U Azami, Lady of Scrolls & URG Riku of Two Reflections
Casual: UR Dragonstorm, UB Dralnu-Teachings, U NinjaFae, & UR Izzet EDH