OP, you need to stop treating this like what your group does is supported by the official rules. It is not. It is a recommended house rule. You are allowed to implement house rules if they are agreed upon. The person was a jerk.
If you need him to play, and he refuses to play with the house rule, then you should just suck it up and play by the official rules. If you are already enough people, you can tell him that that is the house rule you use in that store, and he can either play along or leave.
I don't get why you are getting so bent out of shape. To me, you are just as bad as the new guy. Some guy I don't know wants to play and asks that we play by the official rules may annoy me, but I won't make a big deal about it.
Not for nothing but i cant help but feel as if ya'll have grossly misinterpret what we do for mulligans
"Mulligans are now just the "Vancouver mulligan." While taking a free seven-card redraw and setting aside a hand to simply draw a new one are still recommended, the old "partial Paris" and other mulligan rules are gone. Just mulligan and draw one less card each time, then scry 1 when you keep your hand!"
Thats what we do, thats taken directly from an article wotc posted when you google commander mulligan rules. Theres no cheating involved based on that.
The only real difference is you can use that recommendation, or the standard approach,
Its not a new or different system, and i do find several forum posts and articles talking about it being an option as an approach. There however is no mention of it in any official rules capacity, which is what this guy had such issue with.
But you are also cherry-picking the post, found here. They also recommend that you play with free mulligans.
The fact is that the official rule is to use the Vancouver Mulligan. They have recommendations to make the game more fun/social, but they admit that it can be broken.
It's like playing with a Wishboard, in my opinion. It is not supported in the official rules, but they have recommendations for it. If everyone in your store plays with this 'set your hand aside' rule, then you should continue to play with it, and just explain to the new people that you have decided to play with this optional rule.
A lot of stores play for packs, and I would definitely be bitter if the official rules were not used. For casual play, I do not think people should care... but I get that it can be annoying. It's like building a deck with an extra restriction compared to everyone else. It is abusable.
If the person wants to see an official rule about it, you give him the post by the Rules Committee. That is the official source. You cannot expect everyone to be happy with that rule, especially if they play in multiple stores and need to build according to the official rules.
If I were in his shoes, I would not care. I would shuffle. I strongly believe that if people want to cheat in a casual game, they can go ahead and cheat.
I am not saying you are cheaters, but if you build your decks to take advantage of this type of mulligan, that is an advantage over the new guy.
When we had partial mulligans, decks were built with that in mind. Some decks were rendered much weaker when Vancouver mulligan was put into place.
Your form of mulligan can favour certain kinds of deckbuilding. I don't think you should use it.
For example, if your deck never needs more than 2 lands, you could build a deck with 20 lands and mulligan until you get 2 lands in your opener. This is a lot easier when you don't shuffle in hands with no lands.
I would suspect that your group has subconsciously played with fewer lands because you are not as punished.
If you always have the same play group, you can do things the way you want. But, if you play in a store where new people can show up whenever, then I think you should be more willing to adopt the official rules if someone requests it.
Do you have ways to draw cards every game? There are a few lands that can draw cards, or loot, and they may be interesting to keep the pressure on or to reload after a board wipe.
There is not much downside to playing Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep, but I would only play it if you have legendary creatures that want to attack.
I definitely would go with Shalai. Coming down at 4 mana is a big pro, and she protects your overcosted creatures really well. You will have a lot of ramp, and she gives you a good mana sink.
The mana cost is pretty restrictive, you could only play this in max 2 colours.
We should note that it can target planeswalkers and is therefore situationally better than some red boardwipes.
Tree of Perdition should definitely not be in the deck.
Why not? The tree could be sac-reanimated, and if you eternalize the tree you could turn target player's life into 4 instead of 13.
It's not a control card, and it is a huge threat. Try casting this and see what happens before you can activate it the next turn. You will be targeted by everything and it will probably just die.
Target player loses 27 life is not a control card, it is a burn card. If you play this, you better be applying a lot of pressure.
Unless you want to use it as a combo piece - discard it and reanimate it during someone's end step, kill them on upkeep.
I got one of these when I started playing magic, and could never figure out a deck to put it into. Polymorph style decks don't want to accidentally hit this.
How often do you actually need to get back that many cards?
If you need him to play, and he refuses to play with the house rule, then you should just suck it up and play by the official rules. If you are already enough people, you can tell him that that is the house rule you use in that store, and he can either play along or leave.
I don't get why you are getting so bent out of shape. To me, you are just as bad as the new guy. Some guy I don't know wants to play and asks that we play by the official rules may annoy me, but I won't make a big deal about it.
But you are also cherry-picking the post, found here. They also recommend that you play with free mulligans.
The fact is that the official rule is to use the Vancouver Mulligan. They have recommendations to make the game more fun/social, but they admit that it can be broken.
It's like playing with a Wishboard, in my opinion. It is not supported in the official rules, but they have recommendations for it. If everyone in your store plays with this 'set your hand aside' rule, then you should continue to play with it, and just explain to the new people that you have decided to play with this optional rule.
A lot of stores play for packs, and I would definitely be bitter if the official rules were not used. For casual play, I do not think people should care... but I get that it can be annoying. It's like building a deck with an extra restriction compared to everyone else. It is abusable.
If the person wants to see an official rule about it, you give him the post by the Rules Committee. That is the official source. You cannot expect everyone to be happy with that rule, especially if they play in multiple stores and need to build according to the official rules.
I am not saying you are cheaters, but if you build your decks to take advantage of this type of mulligan, that is an advantage over the new guy.
When we had partial mulligans, decks were built with that in mind. Some decks were rendered much weaker when Vancouver mulligan was put into place.
Your form of mulligan can favour certain kinds of deckbuilding. I don't think you should use it.
For example, if your deck never needs more than 2 lands, you could build a deck with 20 lands and mulligan until you get 2 lands in your opener. This is a lot easier when you don't shuffle in hands with no lands.
I would suspect that your group has subconsciously played with fewer lands because you are not as punished.
If you always have the same play group, you can do things the way you want. But, if you play in a store where new people can show up whenever, then I think you should be more willing to adopt the official rules if someone requests it.
There is not much downside to playing Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep, but I would only play it if you have legendary creatures that want to attack.
It would be fun to know the answer.
We should note that it can target planeswalkers and is therefore situationally better than some red boardwipes.
1G
Instant
Target creature gets +X/+X, where X is the amount of mana in your mana pool.
Next - Roar of the Sky Dragon
Reclamation sage
Wood Elves
Disciple of Bolas
It's not a control card, and it is a huge threat. Try casting this and see what happens before you can activate it the next turn. You will be targeted by everything and it will probably just die.
Target player loses 27 life is not a control card, it is a burn card. If you play this, you better be applying a lot of pressure.
Unless you want to use it as a combo piece - discard it and reanimate it during someone's end step, kill them on upkeep.
It's like a weird cascade card. I guess with Cream of the Crop and Mwonvuli Beast Tracker you can mono-green budget yourself into a cheap fatty. With infinite mana and Temur Sabertooth you can play your deck?