The problem is that most of these competitive In-Person Paper formats with Standard, Modern, Pioneer, and Legacy aren't as appealing as EDH / Commander and it's very difficult to sanction competitive events and tournaments for a 100 card Singleton format that would take hours on end to resolve between rounds with 4 player Pods per table unless it's setup 1 v. 1 per table Best of 1 Single Elimination since Swiss Best 2 out of 3 would take too long. The best you're going to get that comes close to officially sanctioned EDH / Commander tournaments is If you have an Achievement System similar to what Triple A Video Games use where players get rewarded for unlocking certain achievements during a game once certain conditions are met and I felt as though the Dungeon cards from the recent Dungeons & Dragons Crossover set was a great example of this that's tied to the "venture into the dungeon" mechanic except this Achievement System would be something that's unlocked spontaneously amongst ALL players kinda like in Planechase.
Perhaps the best solution for these competitive In-Person Paper formats is by making these formats Singleton so that players aren't needing to spend more on playsets of cards than they have to while also mitigating the financial cost of specific cards getting emergency banned to where it's not as harmful on players' wallets with so many products getting printed to where it seems like it's hard to keep up with and it is. Only problem is that with set rotation as unforgiving as it is, it makes these competitive formats Brawl-lite to where the amount of time it can take to brew a 40 to 60 Singleton card deck would result in these cards possibly no longer being legal in their respective formats anymore and with a very limited card pool to work off of leads to demand for cards that aren't legal in said formats because players are needing the consistency to run "playsets" of cards with different names but are functionally identical even in terms of mana value. There's only so many card functions that a format can contain within itself unless it's an Eternal format like EDH.
We had a weekly "Gauntlet" event on Sundays in Ottawa for close to 10 years until the organizers moved on.
Round 1: 4-player pod, no infinite combos. 1 point per player killed, 1 point for last-person-standing.
Round 2: 2 v 2, but players on same team were diagonal from each other like so:
XY
YX
You could table talk but if you wanted to ask about casting a card in your hand, for example, you had to show the whole table.
Round 3: 1 v 1
You had to use the same deck throughout, so you got some pretty neat showings. Ad Naus won a lot, but then meta adjusted and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben shows up, or Thrun, or Azusa. Entrance was $5 store credit and it was split among top...8? I think. It's been a while.
Wizard's Tower did pre-con leagues pre-pandemic, everyone got a pre-con and you all battled in a pod of 4. Then next week you could add $X in upgrades to your deck, based on non-foil pricing at the store. Then $50 upgrade, then $100+. Sometimes you got ganged on and it sucked waiting for the next round, but overall it was pretty fun.
It really is a matter of time until Wizards does this on its own, they don't really need the RC or CAG either way, and they could even incentivize players by allowing the big event winner to make a custom legendary. The salty streamers would have no choice but to get on board because, believe me, they would love to see their face on a Magic card.
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The "Crazy One", playing casual magic and occasionally dipping his toes into regular play since 1994.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
Youre aware there are commander events and its played in environments where consistency needs to be a thing right?
Do people really bring casual decks to events with any kind of prizes being handed to winners? I cannot imagine that anyone thinks that their casual deck (that is optimized not to win efficiently but rather do certain stuff in the game) is a suitable choice for that kind of event. I mean you can either try to win or not try to win, you cannot do both.
Yes, they do. For a lot of people it's just a way to play their deck against more people. If they win a prize, sweet. If they don't, they still had fun.
The last big tournament in my city had several commander pods fire, and the vast majority (possibly all) of them were players playing non-cEDH decks.
hmm, perhaps i phrased this incorrectly. if somone bring casual deck to event where prizes are being handed to winners then my assumption is that either this person is fine with losing to a competitive deck or theirs complaints are invalid. i see no reasonable way of balancing power level in commander in sanctioned events that would not be considered collusion.
by the way we fixed prizes problem in my lgs with handing prizes randomly. it removes all playing for money aspect from weekly edh fnm and encourages regular participation. it also allows setting up pods according to power level without anything that could be considered collusion. we just pick pods or pick decks in pods after short talk before each game.
We had a weekly "Gauntlet" event on Sundays in Ottawa for close to 10 years until the organizers moved on.
Round 1: 4-player pod, no infinite combos. 1 point per player killed, 1 point for last-person-standing.
Round 2: 2 v 2, but players on same team were diagonal from each other like so:
XY
YX
You could table talk but if you wanted to ask about casting a card in your hand, for example, you had to show the whole table.
Round 3: 1 v 1
You had to use the same deck throughout, so you got some pretty neat showings. Ad Naus won a lot, but then meta adjusted and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben shows up, or Thrun, or Azusa. Entrance was $5 store credit and it was split among top...8? I think. It's been a while.
Wizard's Tower did pre-con leagues pre-pandemic, everyone got a pre-con and you all battled in a pod of 4. Then next week you could add $X in upgrades to your deck, based on non-foil pricing at the store. Then $50 upgrade, then $100+. Sometimes you got ganged on and it sucked waiting for the next round, but overall it was pretty fun.
It really is a matter of time until Wizards does this on its own, they don't really need the RC or CAG either way, and they could even incentivize players by allowing the big event winner to make a custom legendary. The salty streamers would have no choice but to get on board because, believe me, they would love to see their face on a Magic card.
60 card formats just aren't worth it these days because they severely lack the kind of variance that a format like EDH / Commander provides. In a 60 card format you're guaranteed to make the exact same plays as If going on auto-pilot because you have 3-4 of playsets of the same card to dramatically increase your odds of winning. In 99 card Singleton no play is the exact same unless you tutor. It seems as though the lines are starting to become more blurred on this the more functionally identical cards are printed with different names in order to make these decks more consistent than they should be.
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America Bless Christ Jesus
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
We had a weekly "Gauntlet" event on Sundays in Ottawa for close to 10 years until the organizers moved on.
Round 1: 4-player pod, no infinite combos. 1 point per player killed, 1 point for last-person-standing.
Round 2: 2 v 2, but players on same team were diagonal from each other like so:
XY
YX
You could table talk but if you wanted to ask about casting a card in your hand, for example, you had to show the whole table.
Round 3: 1 v 1
You had to use the same deck throughout, so you got some pretty neat showings. Ad Naus won a lot, but then meta adjusted and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben shows up, or Thrun, or Azusa. Entrance was $5 store credit and it was split among top...8? I think. It's been a while.
Wizard's Tower did pre-con leagues pre-pandemic, everyone got a pre-con and you all battled in a pod of 4. Then next week you could add $X in upgrades to your deck, based on non-foil pricing at the store. Then $50 upgrade, then $100+. Sometimes you got ganged on and it sucked waiting for the next round, but overall it was pretty fun.
It really is a matter of time until Wizards does this on its own, they don't really need the RC or CAG either way, and they could even incentivize players by allowing the big event winner to make a custom legendary. The salty streamers would have no choice but to get on board because, believe me, they would love to see their face on a Magic card.
60 card formats just aren't worth it these days because they severely lack the kind of variance that a format like EDH / Commander provides. In a 60 card format you're guaranteed to make the exact same plays as If going on auto-pilot because you have 3-4 of playsets of the same card to dramatically increase your odds of winning. In 99 card Singleton no play is the exact same unless you tutor. It seems as though the lines are starting to become more blurred on this the more functionally identical cards are printed with different names in order to make these decks more consistent than they should be.
To continue this tangent: A lot of people REALLY value consistency. Myself included. The first cards that go in any blue deck for me are Ponder, Preordain, and Brainstorm. Variance is an extremely dirty word lol. If I build a deck to do a thing, I damn well want it to do that thing. Not everyone specifically seeks out a lack of variance, but I think everyone CAN get on board with with the fact that its incredibly frustrating when your deck doesn't 'do what it's supposed to do.'
We had a weekly "Gauntlet" event on Sundays in Ottawa for close to 10 years until the organizers moved on.
Round 1: 4-player pod, no infinite combos. 1 point per player killed, 1 point for last-person-standing.
Round 2: 2 v 2, but players on same team were diagonal from each other like so:
XY
YX
You could table talk but if you wanted to ask about casting a card in your hand, for example, you had to show the whole table.
Round 3: 1 v 1
You had to use the same deck throughout, so you got some pretty neat showings. Ad Naus won a lot, but then meta adjusted and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben shows up, or Thrun, or Azusa. Entrance was $5 store credit and it was split among top...8? I think. It's been a while.
Wizard's Tower did pre-con leagues pre-pandemic, everyone got a pre-con and you all battled in a pod of 4. Then next week you could add $X in upgrades to your deck, based on non-foil pricing at the store. Then $50 upgrade, then $100+. Sometimes you got ganged on and it sucked waiting for the next round, but overall it was pretty fun.
It really is a matter of time until Wizards does this on its own, they don't really need the RC or CAG either way, and they could even incentivize players by allowing the big event winner to make a custom legendary. The salty streamers would have no choice but to get on board because, believe me, they would love to see their face on a Magic card.
60 card formats just aren't worth it these days because they severely lack the kind of variance that a format like EDH / Commander provides. In a 60 card format you're guaranteed to make the exact same plays as If going on auto-pilot because you have 3-4 of playsets of the same card to dramatically increase your odds of winning. In 99 card Singleton no play is the exact same unless you tutor. It seems as though the lines are starting to become more blurred on this the more functionally identical cards are printed with different names in order to make these decks more consistent than they should be.
To continue this tangent: A lot of people REALLY value consistency. Myself included. The first cards that go in any blue deck for me are Ponder, Preordain, and Brainstorm. Variance is an extremely dirty word lol. If I build a deck to do a thing, I damn well want it to do that thing. Not everyone specifically seeks out a lack of variance, but I think everyone CAN get on board with with the fact that its incredibly frustrating when your deck doesn't 'do what it's supposed to do.'
well i think the real issue is stagnation of archetypes and decks more so than lack of variance in standard. honestly, i've had a prime speaker zegana build together since she came out. i play it consistently. it plays consistently. its never boring for me even if i'm playing the same lines over and over. what would be boring however is if every week i had to battle it out vs. 3 idk, beeble tribal control decks. thats the issue with standard for the past oh idk, like 5 years or so, there is just no diversity in archetypes. so not only are you playing against the same decks over and over, but on top of that they're all built the same. that doesn't happen in edh where you could have someone with a hyper aggressive jhoira 0 drop deck vomit build, or someone who has hat tribal - as in all the cards feature a hat in the art.
60 card formats just aren't worth it these days because they severely lack the kind of variance that a format like EDH / Commander provides. In a 60 card format you're guaranteed to make the exact same plays as If going on auto-pilot because you have 3-4 of playsets of the same card to dramatically increase your odds of winning. In 99 card Singleton no play is the exact same unless you tutor. It seems as though the lines are starting to become more blurred on this the more functionally identical cards are printed with different names in order to make these decks more consistent than they should be.
I read this point a lot, but is the issue really the 60 cards or the non-Singleton nature? Because one often ignored way EDH is prohibitive is by deck-size. I like playing 60 card Singleton variants. It's perfect for casual junk decks, especially considerig I often play with beginners with slim collections that are not redundant enough for 4-ofs and not extensive enough for 100-card decks.
And beside that, there is value to consisency. If you are a Tammy/Johnny that wants the chance to see their combo go off more regularly, you'll have better chances with a smaller deck with built-in redundancy.
I second thepoint that deck diversity is a larger issue, which is a problem with any format that gets "solved" by pros. Even adapting metagames can turn into rotating Rock-Paper-Scissors.
We had a weekly "Gauntlet" event on Sundays in Ottawa for close to 10 years until the organizers moved on.
Round 1: 4-player pod, no infinite combos. 1 point per player killed, 1 point for last-person-standing.
Round 2: 2 v 2, but players on same team were diagonal from each other like so:
XY
YX
You could table talk but if you wanted to ask about casting a card in your hand, for example, you had to show the whole table.
Round 3: 1 v 1
You had to use the same deck throughout, so you got some pretty neat showings. Ad Naus won a lot, but then meta adjusted and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben shows up, or Thrun, or Azusa. Entrance was $5 store credit and it was split among top...8? I think. It's been a while.
Wizard's Tower did pre-con leagues pre-pandemic, everyone got a pre-con and you all battled in a pod of 4. Then next week you could add $X in upgrades to your deck, based on non-foil pricing at the store. Then $50 upgrade, then $100+. Sometimes you got ganged on and it sucked waiting for the next round, but overall it was pretty fun.
It really is a matter of time until Wizards does this on its own, they don't really need the RC or CAG either way, and they could even incentivize players by allowing the big event winner to make a custom legendary. The salty streamers would have no choice but to get on board because, believe me, they would love to see their face on a Magic card.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
by the way we fixed prizes problem in my lgs with handing prizes randomly. it removes all playing for money aspect from weekly edh fnm and encourages regular participation. it also allows setting up pods according to power level without anything that could be considered collusion. we just pick pods or pick decks in pods after short talk before each game.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
To continue this tangent: A lot of people REALLY value consistency. Myself included. The first cards that go in any blue deck for me are Ponder, Preordain, and Brainstorm. Variance is an extremely dirty word lol. If I build a deck to do a thing, I damn well want it to do that thing. Not everyone specifically seeks out a lack of variance, but I think everyone CAN get on board with with the fact that its incredibly frustrating when your deck doesn't 'do what it's supposed to do.'
well i think the real issue is stagnation of archetypes and decks more so than lack of variance in standard. honestly, i've had a prime speaker zegana build together since she came out. i play it consistently. it plays consistently. its never boring for me even if i'm playing the same lines over and over. what would be boring however is if every week i had to battle it out vs. 3 idk, beeble tribal control decks. thats the issue with standard for the past oh idk, like 5 years or so, there is just no diversity in archetypes. so not only are you playing against the same decks over and over, but on top of that they're all built the same. that doesn't happen in edh where you could have someone with a hyper aggressive jhoira 0 drop deck vomit build, or someone who has hat tribal - as in all the cards feature a hat in the art.
I read this point a lot, but is the issue really the 60 cards or the non-Singleton nature? Because one often ignored way EDH is prohibitive is by deck-size. I like playing 60 card Singleton variants. It's perfect for casual junk decks, especially considerig I often play with beginners with slim collections that are not redundant enough for 4-ofs and not extensive enough for 100-card decks.
And beside that, there is value to consisency. If you are a Tammy/Johnny that wants the chance to see their combo go off more regularly, you'll have better chances with a smaller deck with built-in redundancy.
I second thepoint that deck diversity is a larger issue, which is a problem with any format that gets "solved" by pros. Even adapting metagames can turn into rotating Rock-Paper-Scissors.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
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