I play Commander a lot and used to compete in tournaments locally but today I do not play in tournaments anymore. I was having issues when it comes to the events. Control decks are a big problem in the Maltese community and they are very dominant compared to aggro, tribal and other decks. Playing against a control deck to infuriating for a casual player such as myself and that is why I quit competiting in tournaments and instead I prefer to play casually at home or at my local community against decks are not control. Control decks make the game very unfair and the commander committee must reevaluate all blue cards and start banning those OP formats as the format is completely broken thanks to blue.
It's no secret to my friends that I refuse to use blue cards. I have a bias toward the underdog colors (all of the other colors) and want to be able to play those colors in a constructed setting with a decent chance of winning. I love Magic and enjoy rooting for underdogs. To me, it's boring to see the same predictable outcomes in sports, cards, or otherwise. It's good to see an unlikely hero, etc.
Without flaming too heavily about it, the only frustrating aspect of Magic over the years IMO has been the continual domination of blue with only brief interruptions of other decks/colors.. decks which invariably get nerfed through bans or outrun by the printing of stronger and stronger blue cards. As of August 2015, once again, blue is dominating nearly every single archetype across all formats except vintage aggro and standard aggro. That's 10/12 deck types/formats (and letting it slide that Tolarian Academy and a few blue cards often infiltrate MUD which would make it 11 out of 12). If your response is "just put blue in your deck" - you are not hearing me. That's what everyone says. I just don't want to play blue.
I invite you to take a gander at the current population of top8 decks, and add up the % of top8 decks played in vintage/legacy/modern/standard that feature blue. Usually, blue is the dominant color in all of the decks. In many cases blue is not only the top deck in a category, but also represented very heavily in the next 3 or 4 decks down in that category. Mono-blue is now the most winning modern aggro deck (huh?) despite being heavily outnumbered at tournaments by jund and burn, for example. Also, keep in mind that standard is going to change in a month with BFZ, giving blue a chance to climb back up in that format as well. http://www.mtgtop8.com/
Do you think blue is over-represented in Magic? If so, would you rather see other colors brought up or the banhammer brought down in righteous fury to achieve balance?
I agree what you said, blue is so unfun and overpowered in commander (EDH). I hate blue so much that I try my best to build a deck that can beat it.
I am a casual commander player and I cannot stand blue decks particularly stax and control decks. They are so annoying. I spent over 1k euro on a commander deck and still I cannot beat blue no matter what cards I play. When I asked the local community for some advice on building a control based commander deck, they refused to help me because they do not want to give any details. In Malta being an ******** and playing blue at the local community is common and that is not fair. I ain't going to a tournament to swear and swear and not having fun so I decided to stay away from tournaments and instead I only play in sealed during pre-releases because its casual and fair. I feel that the commander commitee is not doing its part by seeing what is OP in blue and keeping the format balanced.
I am a player based in Malta (EU) and one of the few female players in the community. I love playing Magic a lot and play for fun and not for fame or prizes or to play in Pro-Tours or whatever. I play commander/EDH, Oathbreaker and Pauper. I enjoy these formats a lot. My local community is small and we have two venues on the little rock. I used to compete in tournaments but not anymore. I played in four tournaments, the first two were meh, my first commander tournament was great but the last tournament, its participants were toxic, played those annoying stax decks and of course some people really smelled bad of sweat which is no plesent experience (don't they go and take a shower!?). I was put in a pod where everyone played blue control/stax decks (a very popular deck in Malta and they are so annoying and unfun to play against) I play Oathbreaker which is not that popular locally nor is Pauper.
I started playing when Gatecrash was out back in March 2013. I enjoyed my first game and took me quite a while to learn but I had Duels of the Plainswalker 2013 and it helped me a lot. I played Standard for a brief period and played Slivers with M14 and I fell in love with the deck becoming a Sliver player. I got into casual modern in 2014 and commander in fall 2013. In 2017, I went into sanctioned, playing in pre-releases. It was a friendly experience as pre releases were casual and fun. I returned back to Standard, it was a short time. I played in two Game Days. The last one which was during Hour of Devastation was absolute trash, why for five rounds I played most with control players with only one player who played Delirium. I quit playing standard on that same day. I got back into commander and built a Sliver Overlord deck (I love my deck). I never played standard since then and I do not want to anymore. I became a collector as well collecting promos, foils, planeswalkers and full art cards (I love my collection). In 2018, I started to notice the decline in quality with the Core 19 pre-release, there was a three man clique and they all talk about fame and of course control decks. I had a couple of issues as well, the clique being one of them and then the cheating was another issue and there were no judges present on site which is bad. That means that it was my last time that I went to that club after I learned that another club had opened. I was a pleasent experience and also a good place for casuals and it was just five minutes away from home until he had to move his premises to another part of Malta and the new place had wasn't as good as the old place and was almost fifteen minutes away from my home and where the club is, a lot of traffic and because there are so many cars in my country, the new club's location had a parking problem.
I attended the Theros Beyond Death pre-release and I was excited with the new cards but not with the community. I noticed that the decline in quality has gone worse than back in Core 19. There wasn't too much attendence at the new club's location and also toxicity has started within the new club. I just did a decision and decided to retire from tournaments as I feel that I don't belong there anymore. I feel discouraged with the toxicity so I returned into the unsanctioned and I only attend pre-release from now on. I do not wish to quit but quitting tournaments was the best decision. I only play in pre-release in sanctioned play but I still play commander, pauper and oathbreaker in the unsanctioned (I mean playing at home).
I agree what you said, blue is so unfun and overpowered in commander (EDH). I hate blue so much that I try my best to build a deck that can beat it.
I started playing when Gatecrash was out back in March 2013. I enjoyed my first game and took me quite a while to learn but I had Duels of the Plainswalker 2013 and it helped me a lot. I played Standard for a brief period and played Slivers with M14 and I fell in love with the deck becoming a Sliver player. I got into casual modern in 2014 and commander in fall 2013. In 2017, I went into sanctioned, playing in pre-releases. It was a friendly experience as pre releases were casual and fun. I returned back to Standard, it was a short time. I played in two Game Days. The last one which was during Hour of Devastation was absolute trash, why for five rounds I played most with control players with only one player who played Delirium. I quit playing standard on that same day. I got back into commander and built a Sliver Overlord deck (I love my deck). I never played standard since then and I do not want to anymore. I became a collector as well collecting promos, foils, planeswalkers and full art cards (I love my collection). In 2018, I started to notice the decline in quality with the Core 19 pre-release, there was a three man clique and they all talk about fame and of course control decks. I had a couple of issues as well, the clique being one of them and then the cheating was another issue and there were no judges present on site which is bad. That means that it was my last time that I went to that club after I learned that another club had opened. I was a pleasent experience and also a good place for casuals and it was just five minutes away from home until he had to move his premises to another part of Malta and the new place had wasn't as good as the old place and was almost fifteen minutes away from my home and where the club is, a lot of traffic and because there are so many cars in my country, the new club's location had a parking problem.
I attended the Theros Beyond Death pre-release and I was excited with the new cards but not with the community. I noticed that the decline in quality has gone worse than back in Core 19. There wasn't too much attendence at the new club's location and also toxicity has started within the new club. I just did a decision and decided to retire from tournaments as I feel that I don't belong there anymore. I feel discouraged with the toxicity so I returned into the unsanctioned and I only attend pre-release from now on. I do not wish to quit but quitting tournaments was the best decision. I only play in pre-release in sanctioned play but I still play commander, pauper and oathbreaker in the unsanctioned (I mean playing at home).