right? words carry all sorts of meanings and experiences with them. i find it really enjoyable to examine how i speak and how i write because i can always be kinder and more precise.
Stumbled on your channel a couple of days ago and I have to say I am so impressed with your content! Super excited to see what you continue to put out!
I really appreciate your videos! Even with such a huge, and old community you're bringing new valubale perspective. Your content fills a niche i never knew was open
“Some so-called competitive players and some so-called casual players think each other are intolerant and bad for the format”. I think this is 3/4 true. I’ve met competitive players who think casual players are intolerant. I’ve met casual players who think competitive players are intolerant. I’ve met casual players who think competitive players are bad for the format. But I’ve never met competitive players who think casual players are bad for the format.
@@StackedEDH not sure if you ever play with random people on the internet but after seeing your gameplays and seeing what your power level is around, i'd love to hop on a webgame
@@aryehlandau9972 most of my game time lately has been used for jumping into other content creators' streams and playing with my local homies, but if and when i get more time to play i'll let folks know via twitter!
This is great man thanks for making such engaging and easily digestible content really got me thinking and that’s why I like this channel it really activates the philosophical part of my brain your chill vibe is also relaxing
This was honestly one of the single best discussions on this topic. And to throw it back to an old Inquest... This makes me look at how I'm mostly the odd man out in my small playgroup and has my wanting to really evaluate how I play with that group.
thank you, Casey! yeah: group dynamics are tough, and changing our behavior is tough (and takes awhile!). hope you and your group can be as charitable with each other as possible.
Thanks again, another excellent and thought provoking video. I will certainly like and share. My group recently decided to do sealed EDH decks made from a Commander Legends box each. In part as an antidote to the arms race of the core players but also to level the playing field for the wider group. We played a most enjoyable 3 hour game over Google Hangouts on Sunday night, the first such game I've played in a good few years with many twists and turns. What I seek from MTG and EDH more specifically is an excuse to spend quality time with my oldest friends doing something we all enjoy. Your comments on the RC philosophy document are fair and constructive. I too find the prescriptive nature of their comments on fun to be a little alienating but on the other hand I probably do fall on their side of the fence more so than the cEDH side.
very glad you enjoyed the vid and found it helpful! that sealed game sounds fun, and i agree-EDH is a great way to hang with friends, and to deepen those relationships. and i'm glad to know that you, too, find some of the RC's philosophy doc a little alienating.
The single best casual vs competitive breakdown I've encountered. And I think it reflects the true, living spirit of the format in the actual players (not just a theoretical spirit).
Love to see the inner workings of your mind spill out on my phone screen. I also love that the competitive cardpool is growing and we start to see some real power decks run some things that might be seen as jank in other situations. Let's watch this format grow as the divide dissolves.
This was excellent and well stated. It would be great to see this clarity reflected in more places among content creators, the RC, and other influential outlets!
Really liked the video, I thought it flowed really well :) also, Ive always found the ante rule fascinating, so it was fun to listen to somebody talk about it.
In casual EDH there is also a social component. In which you are there to meet, greet and socialize. Not to finish the game and move on. In casual you want to learn about others through their deck and expression from it. This is part of why my favorite deck is group hug. It just allows me to see what others enjoy and how they express that. PS I swear I feel like in an english class every time I watch one of your videos. 3 part essay and the methodical approach to the language itself. It must have been fun to be your student.
@@StackedEDH I'd say Elves of Deep Shadows from The Dark (love that art!) and Dark Heart of the Wood from Ravnica! It has a very special flavor for me.
Excellent essay. I've always thought that the key to edh's split was to formalize the deck levels in the form of banlist submissions. Theoretically, each player would submit a banlist then it would all get tallied and the levels would be defined by a percentage. Say Level 10 would be no banned cards, 9 wouls be the top 10% banned, 8 the top 20%, so on so forth. Of course there are several logistics problems with this, but I think its a cool place to start thinking about stuff.
New thinking about this can only help. (I advocate for no global banlist but local banlists determined by Rule 0 convos-and a more sophisticated way of forming pods at MagicFests and other public events-but I understand arguments against that desire.)
11:13 As we age, our evaluation of the "best use" of our time changes as well. We no longer have hours of time to throw away on a singular game of Magic.
The best takeaway from this video (besides the short clip of Usagi running on the stationary bike - Sailor Moon ftw) is how it is just a matter of mindset. At the end of the day, all players want to have fun and eventually win by their own means. I don't play cEDH just because I feel like most of the routes to victory are too similar nowadays (and the "staples" can be very expensive), but just because I build optimized decks for commanders doesn't mean I'm not running some jankiness or spicy tech. They may not be 9's and 10's (or even 8's) but you made an excellent point that power isn't intrinsic to particular cards but in your intent when building a deck. There's nothing wrong with putting Force of Will or Mana Crypt in "casual" decks. Some commanders cost 7 mana and up; cards like Jeweled Lotus and Mana Crypt actually let you play your jank commander more frequently than without. Again, excellent exposition!
Really, really cool video! With a little bit of history as a treat (at least for me XD) Also, this "fight" of casual vs competitive, novelty vs what works best, it's a fight I have had inside me since I started playing. I LOVE legacy, i love edh and cedh, but i also really dislike (usually), the "usual" decks. So, i found my ideal legacy deck like after more than a decade after starting to try the format (I say try because of the RL and the fact that I started when I was 9) and it's not the best XD And in edh (and in cEDH this is easier to spot) I have the same "problem". The idea of casual and competitive being both in us is... refreshing. I can continue to accept my magic self much easily now (a process that started a couple years ago.) So i have like 2/3 ideas for cEDH decks, but i also want to play with what I find fun and I have to accept that i can't answer everything (i didn't really like playing counterspells XD and playing cEDH helped me in that regard, i now accept them for myself XD but i still much prefer other playstyles.) Your channel is really great. And thanks for the reminder on those words! I care a lot about these thing (heh, I study psychology after all) and i didn't think about those specifically!
Hey, Ken. New suscriber here thanks to Rebell. I really loved your insight on the debate. I myself am barely exploring the competitive side of EDH and am finding it really exciting. I would just like to point out that codemning the phrase on the philosophy document is not advancing the debate. "Fun" as you said is not defined in any part of the document and the only claim about it is "we believe games are more fun if you don't [break them]", so the members of the Rules Committee accept it as a belief, but not a fact or a rule. They don't even define what is considered to break the format. So as it is subjectively interpretable both "fun" and "broken" may mean virtually anything. I really don't think it is the RC's place to define for you the way you have should have fun or what things you should find broken. The problem with the vageness in the phylosophy document arises when the mayority of the community defines those words pretty similar, they start to think that that's the norm, and it seems natural to reject the opposits of that supposed norm; and must of the community are casual players. I am honestly not sure if I made much sense here since English is not my first language. I apologise if something is not clear and if clarification is needed, please ask for it here.
The center cannot hold - the tension between social & competitive segments of EDH has been mitigated through rule 0 and pods, but the banlist is where tensions will continue to escalate, especially given how terrible social media is at resolving said tensions.
I'm curious to see how things develop. I know that I find more harmony than dissonance in the pregame expectations of IRL players-and with folks I've met via social media. I think that measuring the health of a format based on the rhetorical picture on a social media platform is dicey.
@@StackedEDH I've had it 50/50 go both ways - a good pregame Rule 0 talk leading to an enjoyable experience, and someone playing cEDH partners but claiming "my deck is depowered" pubstomping everyone else. The problem is that people in the healthy playgroups are not the most vocal ones, and socmed algorithms amplify the loudest and most controversial takes. I'd love to see EDH to stay where it is but life is nothing if not in flux.
Hi Ken, I have a lot of janky decks made for casual commander. One is Unesh with Mirror Galery to make copies of Unesh and attack with a bunch of sphinxes. However, i have a Thassa's Oracle as a backup. Am i suppose to remove it or is it fine if it doesn't win until turn 15? Thanks again for your quality content !
hello! if you have a good sense of what your deck does and how quickly it tends to win without interruption, that's a good thing to bring up during Rule 0 conversations before games. personally: i'd be just fine with that deck and either win con… i just wanna play cards/i like all strategies!
I don't know if I like your definition of competitive as trying to win quickly and consistently. I think it is better to describe the competitive mindset as trying to be most likely to win each game, this just happens to be in many cases fast consistent combo decks because of the nature of multiplayer, but there are cEDH decks like blood pod that try to win slower through stax and in many games without a combo.
great point. i thought about this a bit as i was writing the script because all sorts of stax decks came to mind (like Blood Pod), though i suppose those decks still intend to win as quickly as they can-they just have a different pace… or time signature, lol!
This reminds of an episode's of Maro's podcast he did on the idea of "it's all Magic" Doesn't matter how you play, what language you speak, what background you're from, ect it's all ultimately Magic. He also went into detail of the idea of othering it's those players playing those cards so I'm gonna treat them slightly different. PS I do just like CEDH for being ok with proxies and it probably the only mainstream format I can think of that's like that. media.wizards. com/2020/podcasts/magic/drivetowork784_itsallmagic_M2Sds8iU.mp3
In your third part, you said that describing the format as fun is redundant and imprecise, but isn't is still true? The entire point of playing with these rectangular cardboard slices is to have fun, is it not? The picture being painted here is that people have, generally speaking, found 2 primary modes of having fun in Commander: competitive and casual, the entire premise of the video. So why not split the 2 intentions of fun apart to aid in reducing confusion and increasing overall enjoyment of both modes of play? That's basically how other formats work; they're split up by intent and their card pools to allow for clear, unique ways of having fun in 1v1 Magic, reducing confusion and increasing overall enjoyment of the game
I disagree with you in some ways. I'm one of the mentioned players who think breaking the game is bad for the format and it's not JUST an ever-changing mind-set. It's pretty stable actually. Last night at work (Graveyard shift), I spent probably 7 hours of my 12 hour shift (While running presses) brewing a new concept: Golgari Sligh. I had this crazy idea of using artifact lands for Phylactery Lich, Dark Ritual, combined with green mana dork ramp and the new Elf legendary, Lathril. Not long after I finished it and thoroughly tested it to success, however, I had a moment of realization... this was a complete waste of time. Why? Sligh isn't viable anymore and it never will be again. Sligh, Mid-range, Green Stompy,... all dead archetypes in the eternal formats. I started playing when I was 13 years old. I acquired a 1999 Matt Linde World Championship deck about 6 months later. I gleaned a LOT from playing that deck. Learning how it worked, why it worked, and how to pilot it properly. I left school into summer break a complete newb. I went back to school in the fall (After learning from the Matt Linde deck) with a gruul mid-range/sligh deck and challenged all my friends to a tournament at school. I won it. From that point on, I was enamored by the play-style of fast efficient aggro. That was 18 years ago. I also quickly developed a love for mono green elves. I have spent the bulk of my experience playing magic invested in aggro. I've dabbled in other play-styles, but none as much as fast aggro. I've learned how to build Esper, Dimir, Artifact RAffinity, Reanimator, and so on, and I also ran into the likes of TPS, Scepter Chant, and Fruity Pebbles while playing on MWS. Golgari has become my favorite color combination... but my ability to craft a fast and efficient mono-green machine is my trademark. In fact, I challenged myself to build the best green stompy deck I could for under $3.00. For years I've played it into $100-200 decks and won consistently. I'm proud of that. But to my point, the current state of magic has me feeling like I squandered my invested experience. I can't go to competitive events and expect to make it past round 2 with my aggro knowledge and orientation. If I want to stand a chance, I have to go learn what the most efficient combos are, both as prospects to run and to study to run against. On top of that, I'd probably have to just netdeck whatever deck I decide to run. No homebrewing. That sounds boring, I want to use the skills I ALREADY HAVE. As a semi-competitive player, that makes me feel bitter and cynical about the state of the game and how things have changed, from my perspective, for the worse. I shouldn't HAVE to adopt a play-style that bores me to go to a FNM and have any hope of placing podium. A balanced and fair game would ensure that as many playstyles are viable as possible, but nowdays, quick efficient insta-game-winning combos are the only thing that works anymore. It's that or bust. I refuse to accept that or be any part of it. But part of me DOES want to demonstrate what I already CAN do and how much I already do know. I want to be able to bring my aggro decks to an event and feel some hope of getting somewhere. All of that said, I am by-default a casual player, merely because I refuse to accept that circus side-show as a true representation of what competitive Magic should be. Competitive Magic should demonstrate experience, knowledge of combos/synergy/card pool/meta, ability to build and design, problem-solving, ability to pilot with and against various decks, tenure, and so on. The competitive scene as it sits now only demonstrates a couple of those things. To me, competition is MUCH MUCH more than just the ability to win; it should be a demonstration of every facet of your prowess as a player and deck-builder. I don't see players who compete in that faux-competition as my superiors in any way shape or form and I see no point in partaking because it would demonstrate very little of my skill and knowledge. I am relegated to casual kitchen-table Magic because my expertise is now obsolete, my play-style has been disenfranchised, and I'm pretty damn unhappy about that.
I really appreciate you pointing out how people transition even within a game from turn to turn how competitive they are playing.
thank you, marco! hope you're doing well down the road, homie. ❤️
Was also fascinating to learn the etymology of 'degenerate'!
right? words carry all sorts of meanings and experiences with them. i find it really enjoyable to examine how i speak and how i write because i can always be kinder and more precise.
@@StackedEDH I like you.
@@leovalenzuela8368 thank you, Leo!
You can't be praised enough for the quality (and planning) you put in each video.
Thank you for the content!
thank you so very much, Sav. i appreciate you.
Excellent video as always. I am loving all the effort to bridge the apparent philosophical divide in edh. Intent matters!!
amen! thanks so much, antonius!
Stumbled on your channel a couple of days ago and I have to say I am so impressed with your content! Super excited to see what you continue to put out!
thanks so much, Ryan!
"Defining fun is about as effective as explaining the punchline to a joke."
I LOVE this phrase.
I really appreciate your videos! Even with such a huge, and old community you're bringing new valubale perspective. Your content fills a niche i never knew was open
that's very kind. i appreciate and you.
How is it possible you haven't blown up yet? I just don't get it this is crazy good content, keep up the great work.
thank you so much, TLG! i'm thrilled with how kind and receptive folks have been. (and i love the character carnage so much, such a great design)
What a gem this channel is!
thanks so much, froggy! i appreciate that a lot.
“Some so-called competitive players and some so-called casual players think each other are intolerant and bad for the format”.
I think this is 3/4 true.
I’ve met competitive players who think casual players are intolerant.
I’ve met casual players who think competitive players are intolerant.
I’ve met casual players who think competitive players are bad for the format.
But I’ve never met competitive players who think casual players are bad for the format.
that's a good point and aligns with my experience!
These video essays are incredible!
🥲 thank you so much! 🥲
@@StackedEDH not sure if you ever play with random people on the internet but after seeing your gameplays and seeing what your power level is around, i'd love to hop on a webgame
@@aryehlandau9972 most of my game time lately has been used for jumping into other content creators' streams and playing with my local homies, but if and when i get more time to play i'll let folks know via twitter!
@@StackedEDH Awesome thanks!
Incredibly well put and worthy of more attention.
thank you so much, Pedro!
Well said. Your videos are always succinct and well thought out. Keep it up!
thank you so much!
Thanks for making this content. Really brightened my week.
i'm so happy to hear it! thanks for the lovely comment.
This is great man thanks for making such engaging and easily digestible content really got me thinking and that’s why I like this channel it really activates the philosophical part of my brain your chill vibe is also relaxing
very glad to hear that! thanks so much for saying so. always happy to help people wonder about stuff
Pure quality! Loved this video! Historical context to the current game is always super fascinating to me! Can't wait to see what you do next!
thanks so much, Ross!
This was honestly one of the single best discussions on this topic. And to throw it back to an old Inquest...
This makes me look at how I'm mostly the odd man out in my small playgroup and has my wanting to really evaluate how I play with that group.
thank you, Casey! yeah: group dynamics are tough, and changing our behavior is tough (and takes awhile!). hope you and your group can be as charitable with each other as possible.
Thanks again, another excellent and thought provoking video. I will certainly like and share.
My group recently decided to do sealed EDH decks made from a Commander Legends box each. In part as an antidote to the arms race of the core players but also to level the playing field for the wider group. We played a most enjoyable 3 hour game over Google Hangouts on Sunday night, the first such game I've played in a good few years with many twists and turns.
What I seek from MTG and EDH more specifically is an excuse to spend quality time with my oldest friends doing something we all enjoy.
Your comments on the RC philosophy document are fair and constructive. I too find the prescriptive nature of their comments on fun to be a little alienating but on the other hand I probably do fall on their side of the fence more so than the cEDH side.
very glad you enjoyed the vid and found it helpful! that sealed game sounds fun, and i agree-EDH is a great way to hang with friends, and to deepen those relationships. and i'm glad to know that you, too, find some of the RC's philosophy doc a little alienating.
The single best casual vs competitive breakdown I've encountered. And I think it reflects the true, living spirit of the format in the actual players (not just a theoretical spirit).
😲that's very kind and generous praise, Josh. thanks so much.
I love these dude, you're always changing my thoughts on a game I love for the better :) thank yous
ahhhh-lovely praise! thanks so much, panda. very heartwarming to hear. ❤️
Love to see the inner workings of your mind spill out on my phone screen. I also love that the competitive cardpool is growing and we start to see some real power decks run some things that might be seen as jank in other situations.
Let's watch this format grow as the divide dissolves.
love ya, mab! and BINGO
Brilliant video Ken, really insightful
thanks so much, dan. just trynna keep up!
Love your content please give us more! We always need more community oriented magic content creators!
thanks so much, bernardo! so glad you like it. and i agree! love voices that try to expand and affirm the community and enrich the game.
This was excellent and well stated. It would be great to see this clarity reflected in more places among content creators, the RC, and other influential outlets!
Thanks so much! 🙏❤️
This was a great watch! Very well said
thank you, PtW crew!
Very enjoyable video. The pacing was especially good.
thanks so much, Fämjii! glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for letting me know your thoughts on the pacing.
I think I’m going to try my best to abstain from the use of those words as well. You make valid points all around. Love this Ken!
nice! thanks so much for saying these kind words, noah. glad to have helped a bit
@@StackedEDH just call me Ackoo lol 🤣 and thank you my dude.
@@noahmurtha4036 will do! good to see ya here :)
Really liked the video, I thought it flowed really well :)
also, Ive always found the ante rule fascinating, so it was fun to listen to somebody talk about it.
thanks so much! and yeah: i didn't realize how significant that rule was intended to be until i read up on it.
These videos rule, keep it up
hell yeah, thank you! high praise coming from you
You got a new sub brother! Found this video while meditating on what to do with my Brago EDH brew.
ahhh, i'm so happy to hear it! i hope you enjoy
Very thoughtful content. Loving the videos
Thanks so much, Eli!
amazing content! im really happy i found your channel. keep it up.
thank you so much, Jose!
Really enjoyed this video. A great level headed discussion about a great format within magic.
thanks so much, Bennett! ❤️
I'm in love with this video. Your argument sounds perfect to me.
thanks so much for saying so! very glad to hear that. ❤️
In casual EDH there is also a social component. In which you are there to meet, greet and socialize. Not to finish the game and move on.
In casual you want to learn about others through their deck and expression from it.
This is part of why my favorite deck is group hug. It just allows me to see what others enjoy and how they express that.
PS I swear I feel like in an english class every time I watch one of your videos. 3 part essay and the methodical approach to the language itself. It must have been fun to be your student.
Excellent video as always!
thank you so much, drew! ❤️
How do I only discover this channel now?? Great stuff, super interesting!
ty very much! fave golgari card?
@@StackedEDH I'd say Elves of Deep Shadows from The Dark (love that art!) and Dark Heart of the Wood from Ravnica! It has a very special flavor for me.
@@golgariguy yessss. i love the o.g. Elves art, too; that's the one i've got.
i also brewed a krark sakushima deck not surprised you won the few play tests ive done have done some stupid things.
great video btw
yessssss. love to hear it.
Hey Ken, has anyone ever told your voice sounds like Rob Bell? Your content is great, I've watched everything you've put out so far and it's quality.
thanks so much, Outcast! i haven't heard this before, but i'll look up Rob.
Brilliant again. Well done.
thank you so much, Conor!
Excellent essay. I've always thought that the key to edh's split was to formalize the deck levels in the form of banlist submissions. Theoretically, each player would submit a banlist then it would all get tallied and the levels would be defined by a percentage. Say Level 10 would be no banned cards, 9 wouls be the top 10% banned, 8 the top 20%, so on so forth. Of course there are several logistics problems with this, but I think its a cool place to start thinking about stuff.
New thinking about this can only help. (I advocate for no global banlist but local banlists determined by Rule 0 convos-and a more sophisticated way of forming pods at MagicFests and other public events-but I understand arguments against that desire.)
21:11 i'm in tears, reading that footnote HAHAHA
11:13 As we age, our evaluation of the "best use" of our time changes as well. We no longer have hours of time to throw away on a singular game of Magic.
good point! priorities shift, and shorter games accommodate a broader range of priorities
The best takeaway from this video (besides the short clip of Usagi running on the stationary bike - Sailor Moon ftw) is how it is just a matter of mindset. At the end of the day, all players want to have fun and eventually win by their own means. I don't play cEDH just because I feel like most of the routes to victory are too similar nowadays (and the "staples" can be very expensive), but just because I build optimized decks for commanders doesn't mean I'm not running some jankiness or spicy tech. They may not be 9's and 10's (or even 8's) but you made an excellent point that power isn't intrinsic to particular cards but in your intent when building a deck. There's nothing wrong with putting Force of Will or Mana Crypt in "casual" decks. Some commanders cost 7 mana and up; cards like Jeweled Lotus and Mana Crypt actually let you play your jank commander more frequently than without. Again, excellent exposition!
thank you so much! and this explication is really clear and helpful. exactly!
Really, really cool video! With a little bit of history as a treat (at least for me XD)
Also, this "fight" of casual vs competitive, novelty vs what works best, it's a fight I have had inside me since I started playing. I LOVE legacy, i love edh and cedh, but i also really dislike (usually), the "usual" decks. So, i found my ideal legacy deck like after more than a decade after starting to try the format (I say try because of the RL and the fact that I started when I was 9) and it's not the best XD
And in edh (and in cEDH this is easier to spot) I have the same "problem".
The idea of casual and competitive being both in us is... refreshing. I can continue to accept my magic self much easily now (a process that started a couple years ago.)
So i have like 2/3 ideas for cEDH decks, but i also want to play with what I find fun and I have to accept that i can't answer everything (i didn't really like playing counterspells XD and playing cEDH helped me in that regard, i now accept them for myself XD but i still much prefer other playstyles.)
Your channel is really great. And thanks for the reminder on those words! I care a lot about these thing (heh, I study psychology after all) and i didn't think about those specifically!
thanks so much! i really enjoyed reading through your thinking, and i'm glad to have helped a little bit.
Hey, Ken. New suscriber here thanks to Rebell. I really loved your insight on the debate. I myself am barely exploring the competitive side of EDH and am finding it really exciting.
I would just like to point out that codemning the phrase on the philosophy document is not advancing the debate. "Fun" as you said is not defined in any part of the document and the only claim about it is "we believe games are more fun if you don't [break them]", so the members of the Rules Committee accept it as a belief, but not a fact or a rule. They don't even define what is considered to break the format. So as it is subjectively interpretable both "fun" and "broken" may mean virtually anything. I really don't think it is the RC's place to define for you the way you have should have fun or what things you should find broken. The problem with the vageness in the phylosophy document arises when the mayority of the community defines those words pretty similar, they start to think that that's the norm, and it seems natural to reject the opposits of that supposed norm; and must of the community are casual players.
I am honestly not sure if I made much sense here since English is not my first language. I apologise if something is not clear and if clarification is needed, please ask for it here.
Well put.
thanks so much, justin!
The center cannot hold - the tension between social & competitive segments of EDH has been mitigated through rule 0 and pods, but the banlist is where tensions will continue to escalate, especially given how terrible social media is at resolving said tensions.
I'm curious to see how things develop. I know that I find more harmony than dissonance in the pregame expectations of IRL players-and with folks I've met via social media. I think that measuring the health of a format based on the rhetorical picture on a social media platform is dicey.
@@StackedEDH I've had it 50/50 go both ways - a good pregame Rule 0 talk leading to an enjoyable experience, and someone playing cEDH partners but claiming "my deck is depowered" pubstomping everyone else. The problem is that people in the healthy playgroups are not the most vocal ones, and socmed algorithms amplify the loudest and most controversial takes. I'd love to see EDH to stay where it is but life is nothing if not in flux.
Hi Ken, I have a lot of janky decks made for casual commander. One is Unesh with Mirror Galery to make copies of Unesh and attack with a bunch of sphinxes. However, i have a Thassa's Oracle as a backup. Am i suppose to remove it or is it fine if it doesn't win until turn 15?
Thanks again for your quality content !
hello! if you have a good sense of what your deck does and how quickly it tends to win without interruption, that's a good thing to bring up during Rule 0 conversations before games. personally: i'd be just fine with that deck and either win con… i just wanna play cards/i like all strategies!
I don't know if I like your definition of competitive as trying to win quickly and consistently. I think it is better to describe the competitive mindset as trying to be most likely to win each game, this just happens to be in many cases fast consistent combo decks because of the nature of multiplayer, but there are cEDH decks like blood pod that try to win slower through stax and in many games without a combo.
great point. i thought about this a bit as i was writing the script because all sorts of stax decks came to mind (like Blood Pod), though i suppose those decks still intend to win as quickly as they can-they just have a different pace… or time signature, lol!
im curious on how lord tresserhorn was broken and abused my immediate thought is torpor orb
This reminds of an episode's of Maro's podcast he did on the idea of "it's all Magic"
Doesn't matter how you play, what language you speak, what background you're from, ect it's all ultimately Magic.
He also went into detail of the idea of othering it's those players playing those cards so I'm gonna treat them slightly different.
PS I do just like CEDH for being ok with proxies and it probably the only mainstream format I can think of that's like that.
media.wizards. com/2020/podcasts/magic/drivetowork784_itsallmagic_M2Sds8iU.mp3
oh nice! haven't listened to this; thanks for the link. and thanks so much for the kind words!
Hahahaha called out, I’ll stop as well man
all good! it's all old lingo and i know habits take awhile to change. just something i wanna work on myself.
In your third part, you said that describing the format as fun is redundant and imprecise, but isn't is still true? The entire point of playing with these rectangular cardboard slices is to have fun, is it not? The picture being painted here is that people have, generally speaking, found 2 primary modes of having fun in Commander: competitive and casual, the entire premise of the video. So why not split the 2 intentions of fun apart to aid in reducing confusion and increasing overall enjoyment of both modes of play? That's basically how other formats work; they're split up by intent and their card pools to allow for clear, unique ways of having fun in 1v1 Magic, reducing confusion and increasing overall enjoyment of the game
I disagree with you in some ways. I'm one of the mentioned players who think breaking the game is bad for the format and it's not JUST an ever-changing mind-set. It's pretty stable actually.
Last night at work (Graveyard shift), I spent probably 7 hours of my 12 hour shift (While running presses) brewing a new concept: Golgari Sligh. I had this crazy idea of using artifact lands for Phylactery Lich, Dark Ritual, combined with green mana dork ramp and the new Elf legendary, Lathril.
Not long after I finished it and thoroughly tested it to success, however, I had a moment of realization... this was a complete waste of time. Why? Sligh isn't viable anymore and it never will be again. Sligh, Mid-range, Green Stompy,... all dead archetypes in the eternal formats.
I started playing when I was 13 years old. I acquired a 1999 Matt Linde World Championship deck about 6 months later. I gleaned a LOT from playing that deck. Learning how it worked, why it worked, and how to pilot it properly. I left school into summer break a complete newb. I went back to school in the fall (After learning from the Matt Linde deck) with a gruul mid-range/sligh deck and challenged all my friends to a tournament at school. I won it.
From that point on, I was enamored by the play-style of fast efficient aggro. That was 18 years ago. I also quickly developed a love for mono green elves. I have spent the bulk of my experience playing magic invested in aggro. I've dabbled in other play-styles, but none as much as fast aggro. I've learned how to build Esper, Dimir, Artifact RAffinity, Reanimator, and so on, and I also ran into the likes of TPS, Scepter Chant, and Fruity Pebbles while playing on MWS. Golgari has become my favorite color combination... but my ability to craft a fast and efficient mono-green machine is my trademark. In fact, I challenged myself to build the best green stompy deck I could for under $3.00. For years I've played it into $100-200 decks and won consistently. I'm proud of that.
But to my point, the current state of magic has me feeling like I squandered my invested experience. I can't go to competitive events and expect to make it past round 2 with my aggro knowledge and orientation. If I want to stand a chance, I have to go learn what the most efficient combos are, both as prospects to run and to study to run against. On top of that, I'd probably have to just netdeck whatever deck I decide to run. No homebrewing. That sounds boring, I want to use the skills I ALREADY HAVE.
As a semi-competitive player, that makes me feel bitter and cynical about the state of the game and how things have changed, from my perspective, for the worse. I shouldn't HAVE to adopt a play-style that bores me to go to a FNM and have any hope of placing podium. A balanced and fair game would ensure that as many playstyles are viable as possible, but nowdays, quick efficient insta-game-winning combos are the only thing that works anymore. It's that or bust. I refuse to accept that or be any part of it. But part of me DOES want to demonstrate what I already CAN do and how much I already do know. I want to be able to bring my aggro decks to an event and feel some hope of getting somewhere.
All of that said, I am by-default a casual player, merely because I refuse to accept that circus side-show as a true representation of what competitive Magic should be. Competitive Magic should demonstrate experience, knowledge of combos/synergy/card pool/meta, ability to build and design, problem-solving, ability to pilot with and against various decks, tenure, and so on. The competitive scene as it sits now only demonstrates a couple of those things. To me, competition is MUCH MUCH more than just the ability to win; it should be a demonstration of every facet of your prowess as a player and deck-builder. I don't see players who compete in that faux-competition as my superiors in any way shape or form and I see no point in partaking because it would demonstrate very little of my skill and knowledge.
I am relegated to casual kitchen-table Magic because my expertise is now obsolete, my play-style has been disenfranchised, and I'm pretty damn unhappy about that.