Want to get in a game of paper Commander from your home, but don't know how to FIND folks to play against or HOW to begin? No prob. Go to discord.gg/49NaUvq and you are all set. This FREE server offers webcam games at all power levels, and is a friendly, positive community!
Or just download Cockatrice and play with thousands of people for free. All cards ever printed available to you, people from all around the world playing every format available, including drafts and cubes.
discord.gg/49NaUvq is the link (no and) and PlayEDH is a pretty cool server. It's where I've played half my commander games since I started this year (during covid). Be sure to pay attention to their power levels guidance and please make sure you get your decks checked. Separating into 4 pwer levels is cool but a tad frustrating if you're used to different power level systems. With so many users though, it's been pretty awesome. Once you're set up you can lfg and get placed in an open game on Spelltable.
Playing With Power MTG first off love your channel and I’m a proud sub with the bell. My question is, are you advocating for flash to be banned or hulk? I can completely understand your point on how the flash hulk combo is a problem. But I’m presuming you want flash banned because that enables the combo?
I've just been wondering, what are y'all's thoughts on WotC reprinting the most powerful cards such as Mana Crypt, Timetwister, Mishra's Workshop etc. in Commander sets, since they won't be legal in formats like standard/modern in which they can't be let into? Personally I also feel that WotC should be making purely cards that can compete on a commander in the format as well since it doesn't threaten standard, but it feels even worse to not be able to play certain cards despite their legality in the format, when reprinting them really wouldn't do any harm as I can see it.
@@meowmeow-en6iv Mana crypt can and probably should be reprinted again, but timetwister and mishra's workshop are both on the reserve list, meaning they will never get reprints (unfortunately the true dual lands are also in that situation, but shock lands are adequate budget replacements and function exactly the same in cEDH, you'd only be missing out on running more than one copy of the duals). Luckily, none of those cards are must-runs in cEDH, mana crypt is still far more powerful than mishra's workshop and timetwister (imo). I have a cedh Urza deck, and I run time spiral and echo of eons, as well as windfall and memory jar. I've never felt like I needed to pick up a timetwister in order to make my deck compete, same goes for mishra's workshop. Even cards like mana drain - extremely powerful staple magic cards - don't feel necessary. A regular counterspell does the job well enough for cEDH if you can't afford a mana drain (I would recommend getting a force of will though, free counter magic is a lot more important than powerful countermagic). So at the end of the day, crazy expensive cards like timetwister and mishra's workshop, or Bazaar of Baghdad, etc. won't ever get reprinted because of the reserve list - but none of those cards are required to play and have fun, or most importantly: perform well in cedh. They help you of course, running them will improve your deck, but they aren't must-run cards. I don't think any of the cards currently that expensive on the reserve list are creating a bad environment for cEDH in the slightest. Hopefully that answers your question, I'm not an expert on the market of magic. I've only been playing the game for a couple of years myself (I mean magic, not just cEDH), so I wasn't even around when these reserve list cards were cheap. I would recommend looking into the reserve list (mtg.gamepedia.com/Reserved_List) to see what other cards will never get reprinted. There are a lot of cards that can still get reprinted that are very expensive (mana crypt almost certainly being the best example, but also force of will, mana drain, food chain, just to name a few), but the reserve list cards are not on that list.
0:57 - What is cEDH? 11:35 - How long is the average cEDH game? 15:04 - Gamplay difference between cEDH and standard EDH. 16:17 - Example win in cEDH. 25:55 - The "Hulk" in the room. 34:49 - Why would cards get banned for reasons separate to cEDH/EDH, despite their rules being the same? 41:04 - How compatible are cEDH decks with regular powered EDH decks? 46:40 - Other misconceptions about cEDH? 53:19 - How to get started in cEDH? 1:00:14 - Is there a competitive merfolk cEDH deck?
Dunno. That sounds like it might be an Elliot comment. Good news, as Elliot is the anime villain of the spike feeders, it wouldn't be uncharacteristic for him to "shiv'em". That said, perhaps Jim is going over to the dark side...
@@udinamursona1064 your win with a proxy doesnt count. You have to legit own your cards for it to count. I get plenty of games because proxy is generally reviled. Proxy is taken advantage of once you allow it.
@@elijahbrewer1820 I'm pretty sure you're not playing cedh, if you're saying proxies are reviled, I usually only hear that from casual players, unless you're playing at a sanctioned event, I pretty much never heard of a cedh player say what you just said
I don't know if the professor took The Command Zone as an example of "what not to do", but i really enjoy that the main topic starts in the first minute of the video
Prof will, most likely, not "heart" this comment, out of being defensive (on behalf of CZ). This is good, constructive criticism, though...if it were read with an open mind.
@@draxthemsklonst Except it's not constructive criticism, this is negging of channel to compliment another. Neither party can appreciate it as not only are they friends but it's effectively being said behind someone's back, similar to saying "oh, you did this better than them" and then defending it with "well if they hear me they COULD see it as me trying to help!"
I'll make no arguments against the command zone making money, I can't fault anyone for that. All I'll say is that for me personally, the effects of the sponsorships have changed the show into something that no longer interests me, and that's ok. It's not for me, but that doesn't mean it's not for anyone.
Agreed. If everyone is going for the kill, nobody can complain when they get killed. The issue with casual is people's idea of a fun game. With cEDH everyone's idea is the same; win. It's funny really. The way I see it; if everyone is a "tryhard", no-one is a tryhard.
@@Bladius_ theres also the unfortunate aspect in casual (not saying that this is a problem, or that casual is a problem) that people are trying to do fun things and while everyone does want to win, some people are trying to do big plays and pull of really cool cards or want to win in these really convoluted ways that make the decks fun to play, but less than optimal. And casual decks running interaction can sometimes make those players feel like that deck is "Competitive" because it can consistently stop their unrealistic gameplan in the face of interaction and I think this is where the divide between peoples understanding of power level is rooted, because those people think things that they can't beat are "competitive." I experienced this when I first got into EDH which was not long after i started playing modern. (Albeit i played very jank modern brews.) And when i found EDH there were some players in my small town local meta that played the correct amount of interaction, the amount most decks should play at the minimum at least (it was a superfriends deck running removal to cover all bases) and I couldn't beat it! Well after awhile he pointed some of the things I could do to be more resilient, I got better, eventually got into cEDH and would now consider myself an at the least above average magic player. But I remember the time where instead of playing interaction I used all my deck slots for fun cards. I think if casual players could all be taught (mainly newer players, but I know seasoned players who still can't grasp this concept) that even in casual you have to run interaction and if you dont you will get smashed because your 5 card combo to make a spell that makes 2 tokens into 200 tokens isnt as good as a xenagos beaters deck running removal. And if you aren't going to run interaction willingly knowing this concept, you cant act like you're being pubstomped by other decks that are equally casual but just play responses.
Sure, but in practice that is more easier said than done. In our playgroups we had a lot of custom rules and most of them failed at one point or the other. What everyone considers too try-hardy for a casual environment, which cards you personally dislike etc varies from person to person. Sure, a good playgroup gets a feel for each other and gets a good compromise, but cEDH seems like a great way to just skip that part of the conversation and ensure that everyone is on the same page. I wouldn't want every game to be cEDH, but i'd like to try it eventually
@@slicemargl7411 In our case, we have a group of 20-30 people you show up everyweek at our game store, random pods. If someone wants Cedh he can ask if people are interested. The main thing, is the most experienced players make a point of hating out the pub stompers/policing the playgroup. Our playgroups play a lot of interaction, similar to cedh levels in a sense. Without the ability to combo out turn 3. In my opinion, this is the main problem, people don't build decks with enough ability to interact with your opponent.
I really like Ryan's point about how cEDH is its own metagame and that it is not actually equipped to deal with more traditional stompy or go-wide token strategies. As an example, a good friend of mine recently built what I would call a semi-competitive Kess Consultation combo deck and it has struggled against our playgroup despite being "competitive" in the sense that it is an efficient combo deck. It turns out that if you play something that threatens to win the game it becomes very hard to actually win when you are effectively the Archenemy of the table and have three opponents working to stop you. Even though it is probably stronger overall, it isn't built to deal with Wort Goblins or Boros Angels smashing face while it desperately tries to keep a Lab Man on the board...
I play Isochron/World Gorger Kess aka whichever I tutor into first and my dad plays Krenko, needless to say unless I draw the god hand I am dying first 100% of the time every time
Another example of this situation is Blood Pod. The deck works when it's hate pieces target these decks that combo out and run few creatures so they can get their engine going. Put it against other decks though many cards might do very little, and their creatures will be too small against larger threats. It can still do a combo win, but it doesn't rush to do it, so it can get overwhelmed. It's still quite strong (and annoying) outside of cEDH, but it is very much a deck built for a meta.
Kess is a top tier cEDH and DC Commander, she can totally hold off stompy/face decks. Sounds like he built a Duel Commander deck. cEDH decks carry boardwide interaction/stall. DC decks are built to deal with one opponent with efficient 1-for-1s. Looks like he's not built to deal with a multiway, which a top level Kess can very easily do; or he's built too glass-canon and not interactive, which is a big no-no cEDH. (I play Kess in Duel commander and have cards I flex for cEDH for reference)
@@Bladius_ i would not say "very easily" but yes, kess have tools to deal with threats. it will still strugle if it is played against multiple opponents that are not doing anything else except trying to eliminate kess. of course i'm not talking about precon level threats of course.
I play both casual and competitive EDH and I can say I'm truly happy with this video and the representation here. Thank you both sincerely for the words of wisdom and attempting to clear the confusion and misnomers
I am a big PwP fan, Ryan, you did a great job explaining and outlining the philosophy of cEDH and dispelling the rumors about it. We all love fun as much as every other EDH player, we just want fine-tuned fun.
My two cents regarding this. Ryan did well on this and dodged a couple of bullets where he easily could've started a shitstorm among casual palyers, had he worded his answers differently. So props to him and thanks Prof for letting him on the show. I started out as a casual player back in 2017-18. I played casual edh for about a year before getting introduced to a more higher power meta and from there eventually moving on to cEDH this past year. I can't say I miss casual EDH much. I do still play it sometimes at one of my LGS but that's maybe once or twice a month. cEDH I play at least once or twice a week. We have a very healthy and growing cEDH community, but we don't "hate" casual EDH or the people playing it. Rather we try to give them a chance to play at our tables with proxied decks if they ever wanna try what cEDH is like. My own issue with casual EDH is that the decks tend to be very revolved around random chaos and rng effects. I don't like sitting hours in a table full of non-optimized decks (casual decks can be built well without them becoming "cEDH") and people just draw passing because everyone is in top deck mode with 20 lands in play and nothing to do with them. I also find that a lot of (not all) casual players tend to get very, very salty insanely fast if something doesn't go in their way. Not talking about pub-stomping here. Some players just don't really know how to build decks or to deal with threats, which ends up costing them the game, and then they take it super personally and hate-counter all of your stuff in the next game, and many games after that, because you DARED to kill their Edgar Markov and his precious vampire tokens on turn 24. It just gets exhausting and the toxicity tends to bubble up fast. I have never had any negative experiences in cEDH pods though. People are very calm and collected, and there's no unnecessary saltyness (not talking about being jokingly salty) going on. And everyone just jokes around the entire game while we're playing. People are just relaxed but still remain focused on the game itself without it getting too serious. It's the most fun I've had playing magic, ever. And this last year has been an absolute blast! That's thanks to cEDH and the cool playgroups I have the luxury to play with.
@@DishonorableDaimyo When he was implying that saltyness / toxicity etc. occurs more frequently in a casual EDH environment than in a cEDH pod (never encountered this kind of behavior in a cEDH pod myself). He slid it in pretty smoothly there, so not too many people probably noticed it. Also when he was talking about why cEDH players prefer cEDH over casual EDH. That could've been brought up in a much more provocative manner, and i'm glad it wasn't. Although I do have pretty strong opinions when it comes to casual EDH myself.
@@MaiHead92 True, implying that normal EDH is saltier is a risky thing to say but he handled it very well. Personally I agree, normal EDH has more potential for salt. Yes, there is a lot of memeing amongst cEDH players about casual timmy EDH decks. Glad he handled it tactfully.
What a crock of malarkey. When cEDH players stop grinding FNMs and MF side events, I might believe this. As is, cEDH players are the most salty when I target them down in paid pods. Imagine /not/ getting 4 packs for $3.
@@DishonorableDaimyo i am exactly at your opinion about saltiness, but i want to point out that at the end not the format but the players are the problem for the salt If you play with nice people who are open for increasing their deckbuilding skills you can play casual edh without toxic behaviour
This is such an awesome discussion, never thought I'd be interested in the world of cEDH but here we are. Ryan was an excellent guest, will be checking out their channel. Good stuff Prof
I’ve been watching playing with power recently, well, for a while now I guess. It’s a really great way to watch them playing and it makes sense. Oddly, I just saw that they mentioned proxies, so I would encourage people to proxy cards with your playgroup and try out cedh, or even 1 person at a time. Public libraries print in color fairly often and you can make a ridiculous deck for less than $10 by using mtgpress and making a pdf to print out.
You're in for a real treat. The guys on PWP showcase just how great our format can be and provide the best play by play commentary around. Things are broken down. Lines of play/politics are described in detail, and the final summary for the stat heads is awesome. Just remember... NEVER FEED THE FISH!:)
Very solid video. Thanks to you, Prof, for having someone on the podcast who's an active part of the cEDH scene, and thanks to Ryan for representing our community so well! I'm glad that this piece of content exists now, and I hope many of the people who think cEDH shouldn't be a thing will see it and take its contents to heart. We're all here cause we love Magic, and we want EDH to be as good and enjoyable of a format as it can be.
As a cEDH player, THANK YOU! I'm tired of people believing that cEDH is out to ruin fun for all the non-cEDH players, and getting aggressive about the merest mention of cEDH.
As a casual EDH player I don't see cEDH players often trying to ruin the fun of my friends and me. However I have seen it happen where someone playing something like stax derevi comes up and asks to play and we say we are casual and he says "oh yeah man me too this deck is just my 'fun' deck". That doesn't mean I have distain for cEDH players, but I don't like being lied to.
@@zets8238 cEDH for control and lockdown is way different standards as if you can deny your opponent their wincon or slow them down long enough to get yours which is why stax control will always be really good in cEDH. For stax it is more so measured like how consistently fast you can get your lockdown out to get to your wincon
I really appreciate you going out there with the intention to directly represent the whole EDH community through talking to not only casual but also cEDH players. I think the format is going through some growing pain schisms right now and I hope the open discussion will help people see we're all playing the same format we love just at different power levels
On the subject of proxies, I usually trace out the size of a magic card on a piece of paper, write out the full name, card type, mana cost, and easy to understand versions of the effect, then slide it into a sleeve with a card. I find that it works really well, even if it does make my hand hurt
i'd like to have a roundtable discussion with cedh folks sometime so that we can have hyper casual and hyper optimized have a reasonable understanding of each other in one place.
That would be a good idea, and I'd be happy to be involved. We just gotta figure out when, where, with whom, and how to get it out to the people that need to hear it.
Would it change anything. The community despratly wants change. Its caused nothing but fights at lgs week after week. I think most players would be cool with a more agressive banlist aimed at competitve. Tbh after that last vid you dont rely seem like you care to help out the competitve side of the format at all and alienated us.
@@bakasamacollects2054 I agree completely. the RC and the CAG feel like they not only actively dislike the cEDH community, But go out of there way to act as if we are some non-element when it comes to discussions of banning, unbanning, fun and other things involving our format. I feel like a RC meeting with cEDH community might actually be fantastic for both entities
It's nice that Ryan actually took the time to explain that CEDH players are not just Game-Tyrants, that they still enjoy playing the format as friends or normal human beings, but to a more efficient/powerful degree
God this video is a blessing too my soul. I always hear so much missconceptions online about cedh and it really started to bother me. Really great video.
So basically a "CEDH" stereotype that people generally think of are people who intentionally build a CEDH Deck (from a deck list online most of the time) and internationally bring it to a table and give no knowledge to the rest of the table and overwhelmed everyone and made the game not fun but the majority of CEDH player would let the people know and might offer a 1vs3. Thanks prof for the education and clearafication with a CEDH player. Going to hit some of the links now.
Thank you prof for making this video! The cEDH community definitely appreciates it. Personally, switching to cEDH was the best decision my playgroup ever made. There used to be so many feel bads that we encountered when someone would play a certain card or counter my commander or destroy my land, etc. but with cEDH we all have the same expectation that we are playing to win so we don’t get upset when things like that happen. Just relieves so much tension. Thanks again prof!
There are maybe 4-6 cEDH players at my LGS and they're honestly pretty great guys. I got to play one round with two them (they were playing Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero and Kykar). I was playing my Arcades deck and a fourth, non-cEDH player was playing Syr Gwyn. It was a pretty interesting dynamic where they initially started just going for their combos, then realized that they needed to start reacting to what the non-cEDH players were doing. To this day, I'm still living for the excitement and high five i got from the from the Kykar player when I Plasm Captured the Gerrard player's combo piece. PS: The guy playing the non-cEDH Syr Gwyn deck won.
If Flash were banned today, I don't think there becomes an automatic "we need to ban the next best thing." Flash Hulk is miles better than any other combo present right now. I had 1 land plus a mana dork and was just waiting to flash hulk until i was convinced everyone was out of counterspells. And i can do it at instant speed with your win condition still on the stack. So yeah if Flash gets banned, I don't think the next best thing is nearly as good as flash, and is probably much more answerable.
its also an old combo that was even better than the other crazy stuff you would see in legacy. that is the crux here essentially unlike modern or standard where often or not some card would be printed that breaks the format this specific interaction has stood the test of time because its basically even better than time vault voltaic key.
Yeah, for real. cEDH is all about finding the most degenerate decks, but flashHulk is substantially more degenerate than the rest. In some sense it solves the format, the “right” deck to play right now if you only care about winning is flashHulk. No one really likes solved formats, especially when the solution is “aggressively mulligan to either win turn 0/1 or have disruption on turn 0/1”. Maybe there is another “best” deck afterwards, but that doesn’t mean that the best deck is as good as flashHulk.
Finally you let this crowd get heard. Your move, Command Zone. EDIT: My stance is that cEDH should be mentioned and promoted more (and it's a tragedy that there has never been a cEDH Game Knights), but I don't want the RC to make ban decisions specifically for cEDH. Commander is the only real constructed format that casual players have. If I want to play Flash in my Esper flicker deck, I should be able to.
@@ShinySprites Not true at all. Of course there are fewer viable decks in cEDH than there are in casual EDH (no different to comparing casual to the top end of any other format) but there are still a plethora of viable strategies and decks.
@@ShinySprites as opposed to casual EDH, where your choices are: play big creatures and hope to kill with combat damage before someone plays a sweeper; group hug/slug decks that more often than not slant the game in the favor of one player; or the chaos decks that don't do anything except make the game a miserable four hour slog?
Two things I wanted to say: 1) I have played a number of fun games where someone had the clearly best deck. As long as the communication is there, it can be a great experience. 2) I love PwP. I was just looking for more good commander play channels and wasn't particularly into cEDH, but the quality of the content was so good that it got me hooked.
If you mind the price of fetches now, you will wait a very very long time and that's not factoring in all the power (I don't mean power 9 necessarily) cards you might need for cEDH.
I invested about $600 in a Yuriko deck. I really think she is the most affordable CEDH commander. Your cost really go into the fetches and the blue counter magic but not much else.
You have a few amazing cedh viable mono colour decks out their like godo and yisan the wondering bard you can try out plus saves you a tonne of money on Mana base :) Also most of the cedh playgroups I been with allowed for proxies as all cedh players care about is having a powerful deck and that you are a good player to go against rather than whether or not you have the fattest wallet.
I think that reprint scenario is only likely at this point if they sell the IP and the new owners look at RL and say "we didn't sign that". But hey, you can find proxies at prince Ali handsome as he Ali Ababwa Express or make your own in certain websites/print your own. I recommend against "alt art" because it makes the gameplay clunkier.
This was really good. Enjoyed the conversation more than I expected too. Now I don't plan on jumping into cEDH myself however, I now have a greater understanding of the playstyle. Thank you
@@ecos889 I play big pappa frog Gitrog so don't count me out. But don't let the mermaid and cleric fool you. Flashing grand pappy frog out is still pretty good.
The fact Thrasios isn't banned in cEDH/Duel commander blows my mind. Honestly I'd just ban "partner" as a mechanic if it was up to me, so maybe I'm biased.
This was nice to hear. It gets exhausting playing EDH of any flavor. So many people will spike on proxies then you say, "All good! I have decks with no proxies" and then they say "No! I DON'T want to play with your 'net decks!'" and nothing you say can convince them that a deck you own was built by you. It's really unfortunate that this growing mindset keeps people from enjoying EDH. EDIT: Not that anything is wrong with "Net Decking"
-Proxy-Friendly -Less politics -Less salt -Less "emotional" plays -Good times with 100% optimization My initial thoughts on cEDH have been completely turned on their head. This was an amazing view on it and I'm glad I watched it. Definitely gonna try building something.
Thank you both for this video. People have such misconceptions about edh at the competitive level. I just hope people are able to take it in and forget what others have said about the format.
42:00 i had an issue with this at a GP last summer. They had regular commander pods with minor price support. At the start of the pod I would ask if people were here to play cedh or edh, because i had seen a lot of games where maybe 1 or 2 players had a cedh deck while the rest did not. I brought deck of varying power levels and i did not want to be the only person in a pod to play cedh. Whenever everyone said they just played regular commander i would grab something fun. I had one of my best casual edh games there. There were however two players which very much did not want to have fun. The first said he played an anti cedh stax deck, but it locked most players out and then he went infinite on turn 6 or so. His deck certainly wasn't cedh level though. But then there was the girl. She puts general tazri on the table. I ask her if she is playing cedh, the other 2 in the pods had slightly buffed precons. She said no, and i grabbed one of my control heavy decks. She ofcourse went off on turn 4 with foodchain.
The only appropriate ways to award prizes for casual play are lottery/raffle prizes, points systems that discourage and encourage various behaviours, and participation incentives which award everyone.
@@shawndiaz7528 agreed. Had a locals that held monthly leagues, ppl got points for quirky things they did based on the flavor of the week or month. But you got points off for doing anything that went infinite, blowing up basic lands or more than 1 land a turn. Things like that help promote a casual behavior. Plus if you were able to kill everyone at the table at once. The other 3 or so player could keep going and still win points. You would just win a majority of points of the bat and watch or trade with people. At the end of every round you vote for your favorite deck you faced. Then at the end of the month, the player with most points got prizes. And the one with the most voted deck got 25$ store credit. It was a good time. Moved out of state tho so gotta find a new LGS.
not pulling punches in a tournament is fine but blatantly lying about your decks level in a pod is very different. I don't mind if you want to play your strongest deck, but with two new players in the pod at least be honest about it.
Awesome work prof, you are the only channel not afraid to welcome other community members/channels, even if they don’t share your particular style. Love playing with power content too, keep it going guys!
The commander meta in my area is getting more juiced (3 stores). I'm finding it harder to enjoy playing casually or with pet cards. The timing on this video is great. I was making the decision to become more spikey or find a way to cope with the new power level.
Ok, i just have 1 issue (and it's one we have in our group all the time). Can you call godo, edric najiela and such really aggro decks? Sure they attack but thats about as far as the similarities go. I started calling them combat combo decks since i feel it's a much more accurate description.
For Najeela, I'd definitely say yes. There have been times where I haven't been able to assemble the combo, but have still been able to build an army over time and win through a FINITE army of warriors.
@@Thras_Oracle yes but normaly that's your plan Z or at least that's 'how i expirienced it. I didn't play it myself yet so maybe i missjugde it but 95% it wins infinitly.
@@lefloidNemesis you're absolutely right. I guess I would also say that while you are swinging during the early turns, applying life total pressure to your opponents definitely feels similar to aggro decks. But yeah, the deck definitely aims for the combo.
I think this is a great window into not only CEDH, but the competitive mindset as a whole. In my playgroup, we mostly use 3rd party programs to play online. This means we have no real limits on card price or availability, so no 'real' limit on power other than knowledge. But half of the group grew up playing not only MTG, but just about every card game we could get our hands on. The other half started playing them because it was something we could do as a group. This leads to a lot of surprises when one of the less experienced players starts blowing up lands, seeing zero problem with it, but gets frustrated when we counter a creature or even just cast a spell during their turn (cause it's 'MY' turn lol). It's all different perspective, so videos like this are great for helping players that have less exposure to higher power play. If nothing else, it helps us understand each other a little better.
I have no interest in cEDH but I am a fan of PWP. I have a better understanding of how cedh works now and will always watch but still don't want to play (I prefer battles on the battlefield rather than the stack). Respect to Ryan and his awesome work!
I am one of the few people that ran Iona and I only really played it in my Angel Tribal Deck. I almost never saw Iona because if you want to lock the game out, Vorinxclex, Void Winnower, and Sire of Insanity all lock the game much better than Iona. Ive adjust by putting Chancellor of the Annex into that slot, its been a solid replacement but I disagree with the WHY it got banned.
@@mtgsalt1151 Ive come around on the idea that Iona creates bad play experiences. Ive ruined many games that otherwise would have been very fun. The main difference is that if you arent locked out by an Iona you are under no pressure to remove that iona.
I feel the major distinction between the two is consistency. Casual wants 100 card sigleton format to create varied games with unique and even unexpected interactions. Every game is different. Competitive attempts to build a deck that will win fast 100% the same way every time.
overall I agree with almost everything that was discussed. My only real gripe is this distinction that somehow CEDH players are not also tournament grinders. My entry into the format was entirely because an LGS was not only hosting regular CEDH tournaments but also had an ongoing league with some relatively high quality prize support such as high value reserved list cards for wins. While I certainly get that most CEDH games are essentially just casual commander but with substantially more optimized and efficient decks, I do think this is exclusionary to a fairly substantial side of the scene which is tournament grinding. I've gone to major events and traveled around just to pursue the competitive end of the format. Dismissing that reminds me of how constructed Vintage is seen where it's not a "real" competitive format simply because the scene is so small. More stores and events are catering to EDH at the competitive level every year and brushing aside this aspect of the format is needlessly dismissive of the way many Magic the Gathering players enjoy the format. I enjoy grinding tournaments for Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, AND COMMANDER.
I loved the scenario about 1 cedh deck in a non-cedh pod. My friend Dustin would bring his cedh deck and when he declared that hed be playing it the other three of us would gang up on him in the goal of beating him before he could end the match. It was almost like its own game mode that i named “raid boss” and it was fun in its own way. It was a fair-ish 1v3 which was interesting
I loved this video and I love watching Playing With Power. I play CEDH and in my state (Montana) the cedh community isnt large, but there is a yearly Commander Championship tournament and it always lures the best of the best EDH players for a chance at a cool custom deck box (among other prizes). Watching their channel helps me understand a lot of the interactions that happen at the tournament as I cant practice against them. Also loved this episode and I'm really digging this new podcast.
Cool story. But commander is designed and handeled as a casual format for less competitive people. Have you seen the banlist? It is a mess. You can play it competitively, sure. I do too, sometimes. But "the purest form" just ignores the history of the format. I found Canadian highlander to be MUCH more fun competitively.
The 43 thumbs down are Brawl players... Really enjoyed you guys shedding some light on what cEDH is and isn't! Who thought I could learn something from a Prof. :)
I play both and love playing each. Playing both edh and cedh definitely opens up your mind to different interactions and tons of new experiences. I reccomend trying both out.
Want to get in a game of paper Commander from your home, but don't know how to FIND folks to play against or HOW to begin? No prob. Go to discord.gg/49NaUvq and you are all set. This FREE server offers webcam games at all power levels, and is a friendly, positive community!
Hello! I'd like to let you know that the discord link you've provided includes the word "and" in the url. I hope this helps.
Or just download Cockatrice and play with thousands of people for free. All cards ever printed available to you, people from all around the world playing every format available, including drafts and cubes.
Wow that’s an amazing resource I have pauper decks but no one in my area (Southern Hemisphere) plays this format. I hope it lasts past COVID-19. 😷
discord.gg/49NaUvq is the link (no and) and PlayEDH is a pretty cool server. It's where I've played half my commander games since I started this year (during covid). Be sure to pay attention to their power levels guidance and please make sure you get your decks checked. Separating into 4 pwer levels is cool but a tad frustrating if you're used to different power level systems. With so many users though, it's been pretty awesome. Once you're set up you can lfg and get placed in an open game on Spelltable.
the discord link doesn't work, it gets the " and" as part of the link
HUGE thank you Prof for having us on the show! Had a fantastic time talking about this format that we love so much!
Dudes I love your channel. Especially when Flusterstorm hits the stack and makes it huge!
Playing With Power MTG first off love your channel and I’m a proud sub with the bell. My question is, are you advocating for flash to be banned or hulk? I can completely understand your point on how the flash hulk combo is a problem. But I’m presuming you want flash banned because that enables the combo?
Nvm, you answered my question in the video. One should watch before they ask.
I've just been wondering, what are y'all's thoughts on WotC reprinting the most powerful cards such as Mana Crypt, Timetwister, Mishra's Workshop etc. in Commander sets, since they won't be legal in formats like standard/modern in which they can't be let into? Personally I also feel that WotC should be making purely cards that can compete on a commander in the format as well since it doesn't threaten standard, but it feels even worse to not be able to play certain cards despite their legality in the format, when reprinting them really wouldn't do any harm as I can see it.
@@meowmeow-en6iv Mana crypt can and probably should be reprinted again, but timetwister and mishra's workshop are both on the reserve list, meaning they will never get reprints (unfortunately the true dual lands are also in that situation, but shock lands are adequate budget replacements and function exactly the same in cEDH, you'd only be missing out on running more than one copy of the duals). Luckily, none of those cards are must-runs in cEDH, mana crypt is still far more powerful than mishra's workshop and timetwister (imo). I have a cedh Urza deck, and I run time spiral and echo of eons, as well as windfall and memory jar. I've never felt like I needed to pick up a timetwister in order to make my deck compete, same goes for mishra's workshop. Even cards like mana drain - extremely powerful staple magic cards - don't feel necessary. A regular counterspell does the job well enough for cEDH if you can't afford a mana drain (I would recommend getting a force of will though, free counter magic is a lot more important than powerful countermagic).
So at the end of the day, crazy expensive cards like timetwister and mishra's workshop, or Bazaar of Baghdad, etc. won't ever get reprinted because of the reserve list - but none of those cards are required to play and have fun, or most importantly: perform well in cedh. They help you of course, running them will improve your deck, but they aren't must-run cards. I don't think any of the cards currently that expensive on the reserve list are creating a bad environment for cEDH in the slightest.
Hopefully that answers your question, I'm not an expert on the market of magic. I've only been playing the game for a couple of years myself (I mean magic, not just cEDH), so I wasn't even around when these reserve list cards were cheap. I would recommend looking into the reserve list (mtg.gamepedia.com/Reserved_List) to see what other cards will never get reprinted. There are a lot of cards that can still get reprinted that are very expensive (mana crypt almost certainly being the best example, but also force of will, mana drain, food chain, just to name a few), but the reserve list cards are not on that list.
Ryan's sock game almost rivals your own!
Hey Goblin, nice warcry!
Goblin where are those wardrums!!!
A true competetive player!
Hey gang, welcome back!
*I* bring the generic goblin noise!
0:57 - What is cEDH?
11:35 - How long is the average cEDH game?
15:04 - Gamplay difference between cEDH and standard EDH.
16:17 - Example win in cEDH.
25:55 - The "Hulk" in the room.
34:49 - Why would cards get banned for reasons separate to cEDH/EDH, despite their rules being the same?
41:04 - How compatible are cEDH decks with regular powered EDH decks?
46:40 - Other misconceptions about cEDH?
53:19 - How to get started in cEDH?
1:00:14 - Is there a competitive merfolk cEDH deck?
Underrated comment.
The comment of heroes.
This should be pinned.
Liked it just for that last time stamp
People's champ right here.
Typical cEDH player! Brings his sock A-game when guesting on Untitled MTG Podcast.
Shiv'em Jim
Dunno. That sounds like it might be an Elliot comment.
Good news, as Elliot is the anime villain of the spike feeders, it wouldn't be uncharacteristic for him to "shiv'em".
That said, perhaps Jim is going over to the dark side...
For tinetwister proxy use days undoing and sharpie out the last sentence. $6 timetwister done
"We're very proxy-friendly. We want to fight the player, not their wallet"
My respect for CEDH just went way up
No proxies unless you own an actual copy. Show me the reciepts.
@@elijahbrewer1820 have fun finding no one to play with you
@@udinamursona1064 your win with a proxy doesnt count. You have to legit own your cards for it to count. I get plenty of games because proxy is generally reviled. Proxy is taken advantage of once you allow it.
@@elijahbrewer1820 I'm pretty sure you're not playing cedh, if you're saying proxies are reviled, I usually only hear that from casual players, unless you're playing at a sanctioned event, I pretty much never heard of a cedh player say what you just said
@@udinamursona1064 i do not play cedh and have no interest in a turn 2 win engine.
I don't know if the professor took The Command Zone as an example of "what not to do", but i really enjoy that the main topic starts in the first minute of the video
well the commandzone adds are foreseeable, so I always skip them completely
Prof will, most likely, not "heart" this comment, out of being defensive (on behalf of CZ).
This is good, constructive criticism, though...if it were read with an open mind.
@@bobdole8830 Same. I really dislike the way they are build into the Command Zone episodes and how formulated they are, but at least you can skip them
@@draxthemsklonst Except it's not constructive criticism, this is negging of channel to compliment another. Neither party can appreciate it as not only are they friends but it's effectively being said behind someone's back, similar to saying "oh, you did this better than them" and then defending it with "well if they hear me they COULD see it as me trying to help!"
I'll make no arguments against the command zone making money, I can't fault anyone for that. All I'll say is that for me personally, the effects of the sponsorships have changed the show into something that no longer interests me, and that's ok. It's not for me, but that doesn't mean it's not for anyone.
This may be the single greatest thing to happen to cedh, ever, in terms of growth. Thanks Prof for being a real one!
Thanks for watching!
Ive only noticed now but jesus prof is such a good host, asks REALLY good question and also clarifies his respondees answers
I alway's said, the most important thing is that everyone is on the same page.
Agreed. If everyone is going for the kill, nobody can complain when they get killed.
The issue with casual is people's idea of a fun game. With cEDH everyone's idea is the same; win.
It's funny really. The way I see it; if everyone is a "tryhard", no-one is a tryhard.
@@Bladius_ theres also the unfortunate aspect in casual (not saying that this is a problem, or that casual is a problem) that people are trying to do fun things and while everyone does want to win, some people are trying to do big plays and pull of really cool cards or want to win in these really convoluted ways that make the decks fun to play, but less than optimal. And casual decks running interaction can sometimes make those players feel like that deck is "Competitive" because it can consistently stop their unrealistic gameplan in the face of interaction and I think this is where the divide between peoples understanding of power level is rooted, because those people think things that they can't beat are "competitive." I experienced this when I first got into EDH which was not long after i started playing modern. (Albeit i played very jank modern brews.) And when i found EDH there were some players in my small town local meta that played the correct amount of interaction, the amount most decks should play at the minimum at least (it was a superfriends deck running removal to cover all bases) and I couldn't beat it! Well after awhile he pointed some of the things I could do to be more resilient, I got better, eventually got into cEDH and would now consider myself an at the least above average magic player. But I remember the time where instead of playing interaction I used all my deck slots for fun cards. I think if casual players could all be taught (mainly newer players, but I know seasoned players who still can't grasp this concept) that even in casual you have to run interaction and if you dont you will get smashed because your 5 card combo to make a spell that makes 2 tokens into 200 tokens isnt as good as a xenagos beaters deck running removal. And if you aren't going to run interaction willingly knowing this concept, you cant act like you're being pubstomped by other decks that are equally casual but just play responses.
And when you're in a paid pod? What then? Screw the non-cEDH players, I always say.
Sure, but in practice that is more easier said than done. In our playgroups we had a lot of custom rules and most of them failed at one point or the other. What everyone considers too try-hardy for a casual environment, which cards you personally dislike etc varies from person to person. Sure, a good playgroup gets a feel for each other and gets a good compromise, but cEDH seems like a great way to just skip that part of the conversation and ensure that everyone is on the same page. I wouldn't want every game to be cEDH, but i'd like to try it eventually
@@slicemargl7411 In our case, we have a group of 20-30 people you show up everyweek at our game store, random pods. If someone wants Cedh he can ask if people are interested. The main thing, is the most experienced players make a point of hating out the pub stompers/policing the playgroup. Our playgroups play a lot of interaction, similar to cedh levels in a sense. Without the ability to combo out turn 3. In my opinion, this is the main problem, people don't build decks with enough ability to interact with your opponent.
Can’t believe prof got Godo, Bandit Warlord as a guest.
Cast Gamble to fetch a key piece, any responses?
The stormtrooper who CAN aim cast my own gamble to find a counter spell?
@@passedjudgements4729 with only 2 other cards in hand? A 33.3% chance of discarding the counterspell. Oho you are brave one, my friend.
Godo goes bonk
I really like Ryan's point about how cEDH is its own metagame and that it is not actually equipped to deal with more traditional stompy or go-wide token strategies.
As an example, a good friend of mine recently built what I would call a semi-competitive Kess Consultation combo deck and it has struggled against our playgroup despite being "competitive" in the sense that it is an efficient combo deck. It turns out that if you play something that threatens to win the game it becomes very hard to actually win when you are effectively the Archenemy of the table and have three opponents working to stop you.
Even though it is probably stronger overall, it isn't built to deal with Wort Goblins or Boros Angels smashing face while it desperately tries to keep a Lab Man on the board...
I play Isochron/World Gorger Kess aka whichever I tutor into first and my dad plays Krenko, needless to say unless I draw the god hand I am dying first 100% of the time every time
Another example of this situation is Blood Pod. The deck works when it's hate pieces target these decks that combo out and run few creatures so they can get their engine going. Put it against other decks though many cards might do very little, and their creatures will be too small against larger threats. It can still do a combo win, but it doesn't rush to do it, so it can get overwhelmed. It's still quite strong (and annoying) outside of cEDH, but it is very much a deck built for a meta.
Kess is a top tier cEDH and DC Commander, she can totally hold off stompy/face decks.
Sounds like he built a Duel Commander deck. cEDH decks carry boardwide interaction/stall. DC decks are built to deal with one opponent with efficient 1-for-1s.
Looks like he's not built to deal with a multiway, which a top level Kess can very easily do; or he's built too glass-canon and not interactive, which is a big no-no cEDH.
(I play Kess in Duel commander and have cards I flex for cEDH for reference)
@@Bladius_ I think you're 100% right, his build is very glass-cannon and doesn't have ways to prevent aggro and threatening boards to overwhelm him.
@@Bladius_ i would not say "very easily" but yes, kess have tools to deal with threats. it will still strugle if it is played against multiple opponents that are not doing anything else except trying to eliminate kess. of course i'm not talking about precon level threats of course.
I play both casual and competitive EDH and I can say I'm truly happy with this video and the representation here. Thank you both sincerely for the words of wisdom and attempting to clear the confusion and misnomers
I am a big PwP fan, Ryan, you did a great job explaining and outlining the philosophy of cEDH and dispelling the rumors about it. We all love fun as much as every other EDH player, we just want fine-tuned fun.
I laughed harder than I should have when he said "there sure isn't" lol
@Varler There's Thrasios, Triton Hero... this one is a Merfolk commander :P Maybe not the helm of a merfolk deck, though^^
Closest is inalla wanderwine combo probably
Me too 🤣
Oh, I love the end credits joke.
My two cents regarding this.
Ryan did well on this and dodged a couple of bullets where he easily could've started a shitstorm among casual palyers, had he worded his answers differently. So props to him and thanks Prof for letting him on the show.
I started out as a casual player back in 2017-18. I played casual edh for about a year before getting introduced to a more higher power meta and from there eventually moving on to cEDH this past year. I can't say I miss casual EDH much. I do still play it sometimes at one of my LGS but that's maybe once or twice a month. cEDH I play at least once or twice a week. We have a very healthy and growing cEDH community, but we don't "hate" casual EDH or the people playing it. Rather we try to give them a chance to play at our tables with proxied decks if they ever wanna try what cEDH is like.
My own issue with casual EDH is that the decks tend to be very revolved around random chaos and rng effects. I don't like sitting hours in a table full of non-optimized decks (casual decks can be built well without them becoming "cEDH") and people just draw passing because everyone is in top deck mode with 20 lands in play and nothing to do with them. I also find that a lot of (not all) casual players tend to get very, very salty insanely fast if something doesn't go in their way. Not talking about pub-stomping here. Some players just don't really know how to build decks or to deal with threats, which ends up costing them the game, and then they take it super personally and hate-counter all of your stuff in the next game, and many games after that, because you DARED to kill their Edgar Markov and his precious vampire tokens on turn 24. It just gets exhausting and the toxicity tends to bubble up fast.
I have never had any negative experiences in cEDH pods though. People are very calm and collected, and there's no unnecessary saltyness (not talking about being jokingly salty) going on. And everyone just jokes around the entire game while we're playing. People are just relaxed but still remain focused on the game itself without it getting too serious. It's the most fun I've had playing magic, ever. And this last year has been an absolute blast! That's thanks to cEDH and the cool playgroups I have the luxury to play with.
What questions are you referring to? Am curious
@@DishonorableDaimyo When he was implying that saltyness / toxicity etc. occurs more frequently in a casual EDH environment than in a cEDH pod (never encountered this kind of behavior in a cEDH pod myself). He slid it in pretty smoothly there, so not too many people probably noticed it.
Also when he was talking about why cEDH players prefer cEDH over casual EDH. That could've been brought up in a much more provocative manner, and i'm glad it wasn't. Although I do have pretty strong opinions when it comes to casual EDH myself.
@@MaiHead92 True, implying that normal EDH is saltier is a risky thing to say but he handled it very well. Personally I agree, normal EDH has more potential for salt.
Yes, there is a lot of memeing amongst cEDH players about casual timmy EDH decks. Glad he handled it tactfully.
What a crock of malarkey. When cEDH players stop grinding FNMs and MF side events, I might believe this. As is, cEDH players are the most salty when I target them down in paid pods. Imagine /not/ getting 4 packs for $3.
@@DishonorableDaimyo i am exactly at your opinion about saltiness, but i want to point out that at the end not the format but the players are the problem for the salt
If you play with nice people who are open for increasing their deckbuilding skills you can play casual edh without toxic behaviour
This is such an awesome discussion, never thought I'd be interested in the world of cEDH but here we are. Ryan was an excellent guest, will be checking out their channel. Good stuff Prof
PwP is awesome
I was already familiar with it so, yeah
I’ve been watching playing with power recently, well, for a while now I guess. It’s a really great way to watch them playing and it makes sense.
Oddly, I just saw that they mentioned proxies, so I would encourage people to proxy cards with your playgroup and try out cedh, or even 1 person at a time.
Public libraries print in color fairly often and you can make a ridiculous deck for less than $10 by using mtgpress and making a pdf to print out.
You're in for a real treat. The guys on PWP showcase just how great our format can be and provide the best play by play commentary around. Things are broken down. Lines of play/politics are described in detail, and the final summary for the stat heads is awesome. Just remember... NEVER FEED THE FISH!:)
As a cEDH player, I love this video. Ryan has done an amazing job of educating the masses on what cEDH really means. Good job Professor and Ryan!
There has to be a secret cabin in tolarian community college that hands out socks.
Very solid video. Thanks to you, Prof, for having someone on the podcast who's an active part of the cEDH scene, and thanks to Ryan for representing our community so well! I'm glad that this piece of content exists now, and I hope many of the people who think cEDH shouldn't be a thing will see it and take its contents to heart. We're all here cause we love Magic, and we want EDH to be as good and enjoyable of a format as it can be.
@@ShinySprites No - if anything kills EDH, it will be people that hold views like the one you're presenting here.
@@ShinySprites Way to go POHR
As a cEDH player, THANK YOU! I'm tired of people believing that cEDH is out to ruin fun for all the non-cEDH players, and getting aggressive about the merest mention of cEDH.
As a casual EDH player I don't see cEDH players often trying to ruin the fun of my friends and me. However I have seen it happen where someone playing something like stax derevi comes up and asks to play and we say we are casual and he says "oh yeah man me too this deck is just my 'fun' deck". That doesn't mean I have distain for cEDH players, but I don't like being lied to.
@@MrZerk815 funny enough stax derevi definitely isn't a cEDH deck dude lmfao, stax for the longest time has been considered too slow for cEDH
@@zets8238 cEDH for control and lockdown is way different standards as if you can deny your opponent their wincon or slow them down long enough to get yours which is why stax control will always be really good in cEDH. For stax it is more so measured like how consistently fast you can get your lockdown out to get to your wincon
I don't play cEDH but I love watching it. PlayingWithPower is probably my favorite youtube channel
I really appreciate you going out there with the intention to directly represent the whole EDH community through talking to not only casual but also cEDH players. I think the format is going through some growing pain schisms right now and I hope the open discussion will help people see we're all playing the same format we love just at different power levels
Came here to give the Prof Huuuuuuge props for doing this. Thanks for showing this content. It has been great.
On the subject of proxies, I usually trace out the size of a magic card on a piece of paper, write out the full name, card type, mana cost, and easy to understand versions of the effect, then slide it into a sleeve with a card. I find that it works really well, even if it does make my hand hurt
i'd like to have a roundtable discussion with cedh folks sometime so that we can have hyper casual and hyper optimized have a reasonable understanding of each other in one place.
I think this would fix some of the (very misplaced) aggression some of the community has towards you. Keep up the good work!
That would be a good idea, and I'd be happy to be involved. We just gotta figure out when, where, with whom, and how to get it out to the people that need to hear it.
Would it change anything. The community despratly wants change. Its caused nothing but fights at lgs week after week. I think most players would be cool with a more agressive banlist aimed at competitve. Tbh after that last vid you dont rely seem like you care to help out the competitve side of the format at all and alienated us.
@@bakasamacollects2054 I agree completely. the RC and the CAG feel like they not only actively dislike the cEDH community, But go out of there way to act as if we are some non-element when it comes to discussions of banning, unbanning, fun and other things involving our format. I feel like a RC meeting with cEDH community might actually be fantastic for both entities
Strong sock game coming from both armchairs here.
HAHAHA I was just going to mention that. Sock fashion:10/10
I wonder if the Prof provides those or he requests the acquisition in his invitation.
It's nice that Ryan actually took the time to explain that CEDH players are not just Game-Tyrants, that they still enjoy playing the format as friends or normal human beings, but to a more efficient/powerful degree
God this video is a blessing too my soul. I always hear so much missconceptions online about cedh and it really started to bother me.
Really great video.
So basically a "CEDH" stereotype that people generally think of are people who intentionally build a CEDH Deck (from a deck list online most of the time) and internationally bring it to a table and give no knowledge to the rest of the table and overwhelmed everyone and made the game not fun but the majority of CEDH player would let the people know and might offer a 1vs3. Thanks prof for the education and clearafication with a CEDH player. Going to hit some of the links now.
Thank you prof for making this video! The cEDH community definitely appreciates it. Personally, switching to cEDH was the best decision my playgroup ever made. There used to be so many feel bads that we encountered when someone would play a certain card or counter my commander or destroy my land, etc. but with cEDH we all have the same expectation that we are playing to win so we don’t get upset when things like that happen. Just relieves so much tension. Thanks again prof!
Great episode! Its awesome the Prof is enthusiastic about/supports cEDH.
There are maybe 4-6 cEDH players at my LGS and they're honestly pretty great guys. I got to play one round with two them (they were playing Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero and Kykar). I was playing my Arcades deck and a fourth, non-cEDH player was playing Syr Gwyn. It was a pretty interesting dynamic where they initially started just going for their combos, then realized that they needed to start reacting to what the non-cEDH players were doing. To this day, I'm still living for the excitement and high five i got from the from the Kykar player when I Plasm Captured the Gerrard player's combo piece.
PS: The guy playing the non-cEDH Syr Gwyn deck won.
Love this video! Glad we have such a positive discussion on cEDH, helping others understand what it's all about!
You've been doing a great job on these EDH interviews, Prof! Thanks =D
If Flash were banned today, I don't think there becomes an automatic "we need to ban the next best thing." Flash Hulk is miles better than any other combo present right now. I had 1 land plus a mana dork and was just waiting to flash hulk until i was convinced everyone was out of counterspells. And i can do it at instant speed with your win condition still on the stack. So yeah if Flash gets banned, I don't think the next best thing is nearly as good as flash, and is probably much more answerable.
Well oracle pushed hulk over the top sadly.
its also an old combo that was even better than the other crazy stuff you would see in legacy. that is the crux here essentially unlike modern or standard where often or not some card would be printed that breaks the format this specific interaction has stood the test of time because its basically even better than time vault voltaic key.
Yeah, for real. cEDH is all about finding the most degenerate decks, but flashHulk is substantially more degenerate than the rest. In some sense it solves the format, the “right” deck to play right now if you only care about winning is flashHulk. No one really likes solved formats, especially when the solution is “aggressively mulligan to either win turn 0/1 or have disruption on turn 0/1”. Maybe there is another “best” deck afterwards, but that doesn’t mean that the best deck is as good as flashHulk.
Never wanted to play commander, but am going out to start building a cEDH deck now. Thank you for this top quality content
What list did are you building
Thrilled to see my favorite way to play commander being discussed with/by the Professor!
Finally you let this crowd get heard. Your move, Command Zone.
EDIT: My stance is that cEDH should be mentioned and promoted more (and it's a tragedy that there has never been a cEDH Game Knights), but I don't want the RC to make ban decisions specifically for cEDH. Commander is the only real constructed format that casual players have. If I want to play Flash in my Esper flicker deck, I should be able to.
Meh let these "top end", "letter of the law" guys make their own podcast. Let's see how that goes.
@@Caliban_80 your comment sounds irrationally salty about cedh players showing up on podcasts with large followings. just fyi.
@@Caliban_80 They exist.
Crowd? Dude, I play cedh myself, but a handful of guys posting under every commander-video "we feel marginalized" isn't exactly a crowd in my book.
@@d.w.7203 Sometimes they're annoying, sometimes the others are annoying.
Okay, the proxy-friendly thing totally surprised me.
It’s necessary to keep the games from becoming wallet wars. You won’t meet a cEDH player who doesn’t support it.
@@ShinySprites cedh-decklist-database.xyz/primary.html
Here's some examples of viable cEDH decks James. Wouldn't want you to remain misinformed ^_^
@@ShinySprites Not true at all. Of course there are fewer viable decks in cEDH than there are in casual EDH (no different to comparing casual to the top end of any other format) but there are still a plethora of viable strategies and decks.
@@ShinySprites as opposed to casual EDH, where your choices are: play big creatures and hope to kill with combat damage before someone plays a sweeper; group hug/slug decks that more often than not slant the game in the favor of one player; or the chaos decks that don't do anything except make the game a miserable four hour slog?
Its the casual players who have the wallet hangup
Sweet, two of my favorite MagicTubers in one video!
I’m really liking all the cEDH stuff that’s available right now. So many awesome channels/content creators on the topic!
kudos prof for having part of cedh community in ur video and hearing our side. hope this dispel the stigma.
Ryan Street ~ "There sure isn't" best quote of the whole episode!
Two things I wanted to say:
1) I have played a number of fun games where someone had the clearly best deck. As long as the communication is there, it can be a great experience.
2) I love PwP. I was just looking for more good commander play channels and wasn't particularly into cEDH, but the quality of the content was so good that it got me hooked.
This new podcast format is very enjoyable. Mtg content at its core, without the glitter and shine other "grown" channels have now.
Best video to listen while I'm sorting a bunch of my cards, thanks Prof
Professor, I just wanted to voice my opinion of your new trend of long format podcasts with a variety of guests. I love it.
Been looking forward to this!
Just getting into cEDH so this is timely for me Prof. Now if they will just reprint fetch lands ...
they eventually will but it wont really bring down the price but this is just my view of things
If you mind the price of fetches now, you will wait a very very long time and that's not factoring in all the power (I don't mean power 9 necessarily) cards you might need for cEDH.
I invested about $600 in a Yuriko deck. I really think she is the most affordable CEDH commander. Your cost really go into the fetches and the blue counter magic but not much else.
You have a few amazing cedh viable mono colour decks out their like godo and yisan the wondering bard you can try out plus saves you a tonne of money on Mana base :) Also most of the cedh playgroups I been with allowed for proxies as all cedh players care about is having a powerful deck and that you are a good player to go against rather than whether or not you have the fattest wallet.
I think that reprint scenario is only likely at this point if they sell the IP and the new owners look at RL and say "we didn't sign that". But hey, you can find proxies at prince Ali handsome as he Ali Ababwa Express or make your own in certain websites/print your own. I recommend against "alt art" because it makes the gameplay clunkier.
I love that you did this prof. Ryan is a gem, great guest.
Pretty excited for the episode with The Spike Feeders
I have no idea what we're going to talk about now - Ryan did such a great job!
Ryan has a very clear vision, it was awesome to hear how though out his answers were.
"There sure isn't" 😂🤣🤣🤣😂
Died to the cut
It's funny cause Thrassios is a merfolk and probably the top commander! xD
This was really good.
Enjoyed the conversation more than I expected too.
Now I don't plan on jumping into cEDH myself however, I now have a greater understanding of the playstyle. Thank you
So how is Thrasios and Tymna simulator?
As a cEDH player this is a joke for the rest of you out there.
Kenrith is King in this town here boy.
@@ecos889 I play big pappa frog Gitrog so don't count me out. But don't let the mermaid and cleric fool you. Flashing grand pappy frog out is still pretty good.
First Sliver says Hi
The fact Thrasios isn't banned in cEDH/Duel commander blows my mind.
Honestly I'd just ban "partner" as a mechanic if it was up to me, so maybe I'm biased.
@@F3A5T Always appreciate them sliver players.
This was nice to hear. It gets exhausting playing EDH of any flavor. So many people will spike on proxies then you say, "All good! I have decks with no proxies" and then they say "No! I DON'T want to play with your 'net decks!'" and nothing you say can convince them that a deck you own was built by you. It's really unfortunate that this growing mindset keeps people from enjoying EDH.
EDIT: Not that anything is wrong with "Net Decking"
-Proxy-Friendly
-Less politics
-Less salt
-Less "emotional" plays
-Good times with 100% optimization
My initial thoughts on cEDH have been completely turned on their head. This was an amazing view on it and I'm glad I watched it. Definitely gonna try building something.
I could not love this more. Kudos for this take on cEDH
Me: Turn 1 Sol Ring
Everyone else: Kill Him!!!!!!!!! ♠
And nobody believes me when I say Sol Ring is the worst T1 play
in cEDH it’s like
me: turn 1 sol ring
everyone else: nice
Into grim monolith into arcane signet and another signet or talisman.
Everybody else: scoops
@@grinreaperoftrolls7528 or Power Artifact ♠
Thank you both for this video. People have such misconceptions about edh at the competitive level. I just hope people are able to take it in and forget what others have said about the format.
42:00 i had an issue with this at a GP last summer. They had regular commander pods with minor price support. At the start of the pod I would ask if people were here to play cedh or edh, because i had seen a lot of games where maybe 1 or 2 players had a cedh deck while the rest did not. I brought deck of varying power levels and i did not want to be the only person in a pod to play cedh. Whenever everyone said they just played regular commander i would grab something fun. I had one of my best casual edh games there. There were however two players which very much did not want to have fun. The first said he played an anti cedh stax deck, but it locked most players out and then he went infinite on turn 6 or so. His deck certainly wasn't cedh level though.
But then there was the girl. She puts general tazri on the table. I ask her if she is playing cedh, the other 2 in the pods had slightly buffed precons. She said no, and i grabbed one of my control heavy decks. She ofcourse went off on turn 4 with foodchain.
The only appropriate ways to award prizes for casual play are lottery/raffle prizes, points systems that discourage and encourage various behaviours, and participation incentives which award everyone.
@@shawndiaz7528 agreed. Had a locals that held monthly leagues, ppl got points for quirky things they did based on the flavor of the week or month. But you got points off for doing anything that went infinite, blowing up basic lands or more than 1 land a turn. Things like that help promote a casual behavior. Plus if you were able to kill everyone at the table at once. The other 3 or so player could keep going and still win points. You would just win a majority of points of the bat and watch or trade with people.
At the end of every round you vote for your favorite deck you faced.
Then at the end of the month, the player with most points got prizes.
And the one with the most voted deck got 25$ store credit. It was a good time. Moved out of state tho so gotta find a new LGS.
@@thestormtrooperwhocanaim496 out of curiosity where was this? I encountered a similar system in Maryland last summer while traveling.
not pulling punches in a tournament is fine but blatantly lying about your decks level in a pod is very different. I don't mind if you want to play your strongest deck, but with two new players in the pod at least be honest about it.
@@MeriadocMyr Imagine a 1v1 scenario. Winner gets a prize. Your opponent asks you if they should play a bad deck or a good one. What do you say?
Thanks for doing this excellent episode prof!
I’d recommend Elder Dingus Highlander! The channel is really cool cause they play all kinds of commander, including CEDH. Really fun channel
Awesome work prof, you are the only channel not afraid to welcome other community members/channels, even if they don’t share your particular style. Love playing with power content too, keep it going guys!
What a very informative video. Thank you.
Fantastic video. Thanks very much prof and Ryan!
The commander meta in my area is getting more juiced (3 stores).
I'm finding it harder to enjoy playing casually or with pet cards. The timing on this video is great. I was making the decision to become more spikey or find a way to cope with the new power level.
Just do what I did. Use the cancer to destroy the cancer. Make a kess, dissident mage extra turn oops I win deck.
Wonderful video. Clear concise and contentious arguments
Oooo! Love this episode!
Thank you for doing this episode
I love how you brought a CEDH member on the show after the last guest. He is awesome but he kept dissing CEDH.
Great interview!!! Thanks, TCC!!!
Ok, i just have 1 issue (and it's one we have in our group all the time). Can you call godo, edric najiela and such really aggro decks?
Sure they attack but thats about as far as the similarities go. I started calling them combat combo decks since i feel it's a much more accurate description.
For Najeela, I'd definitely say yes. There have been times where I haven't been able to assemble the combo, but have still been able to build an army over time and win through a FINITE army of warriors.
Some version of Pod can be true face decks. Also Bears in Cars (vehicles) is extremely fun and definitely aggressive.
@@Thras_Oracle yes but normaly that's your plan Z or at least that's 'how i expirienced it. I didn't play it myself yet so maybe i missjugde it but 95% it wins infinitly.
@@En_Djinn true face decks? Bears in vehicle's? I never heard of those. Do they have other names i might recognize?
@@lefloidNemesis you're absolutely right. I guess I would also say that while you are swinging during the early turns, applying life total pressure to your opponents definitely feels similar to aggro decks. But yeah, the deck definitely aims for the combo.
Absolutely excellent interview. Great questions, great answers, great information.
I was just waiting for Ryan to rep his Godo. Probably my favorite deck on PwP. :)
This was an amazing video that really helps dispel the misconceptions surrounding cEDH. Well done.
The last question got me laughing in the floor XD XD... "There sure isn't"
I think this is a great window into not only CEDH, but the competitive mindset as a whole. In my playgroup, we mostly use 3rd party programs to play online. This means we have no real limits on card price or availability, so no 'real' limit on power other than knowledge. But half of the group grew up playing not only MTG, but just about every card game we could get our hands on. The other half started playing them because it was something we could do as a group. This leads to a lot of surprises when one of the less experienced players starts blowing up lands, seeing zero problem with it, but gets frustrated when we counter a creature or even just cast a spell during their turn (cause it's 'MY' turn lol). It's all different perspective, so videos like this are great for helping players that have less exposure to higher power play. If nothing else, it helps us understand each other a little better.
CEDH is Lawful Neutral. Casual is Chaotic Good. Don't @ me.
Adolfo Cabrera Schmidt casual edh is the most chaotic neutral thing in existence
This was extremely well prepared and high quality in both audio and content.
Where do I find the deck database mentioned in the video? EDIT: Found it! It's at the bottom of the staples list, which is linked in the doobleedoo.
I have no interest in cEDH but I am a fan of PWP. I have a better understanding of how cedh works now and will always watch but still don't want to play (I prefer battles on the battlefield rather than the stack). Respect to Ryan and his awesome work!
I am one of the few people that ran Iona and I only really played it in my Angel Tribal Deck. I almost never saw Iona because if you want to lock the game out, Vorinxclex, Void Winnower, and Sire of Insanity all lock the game much better than Iona. Ive adjust by putting Chancellor of the Annex into that slot, its been a solid replacement but I disagree with the WHY it got banned.
I agree, I've never seen Iona played with the exception 3 years ago in a modern deck
@@mtgsalt1151 Ive come around on the idea that Iona creates bad play experiences. Ive ruined many games that otherwise would have been very fun. The main difference is that if you arent locked out by an Iona you are under no pressure to remove that iona.
I feel the major distinction between the two is consistency.
Casual wants 100 card sigleton format to create varied games with unique and even unexpected interactions. Every game is different.
Competitive attempts to build a deck that will win fast 100% the same way every time.
This discussion on cEDH is so much better than the last one with the guy who had absolute no idea what he was talking about
Do you mean the guy on tha cag comity does't know what he's talking about?
Prof you're truly a pillar of the entire magic community keep up the good work
overall I agree with almost everything that was discussed. My only real gripe is this distinction that somehow CEDH players are not also tournament grinders. My entry into the format was entirely because an LGS was not only hosting regular CEDH tournaments but also had an ongoing league with some relatively high quality prize support such as high value reserved list cards for wins. While I certainly get that most CEDH games are essentially just casual commander but with substantially more optimized and efficient decks, I do think this is exclusionary to a fairly substantial side of the scene which is tournament grinding. I've gone to major events and traveled around just to pursue the competitive end of the format. Dismissing that reminds me of how constructed Vintage is seen where it's not a "real" competitive format simply because the scene is so small. More stores and events are catering to EDH at the competitive level every year and brushing aside this aspect of the format is needlessly dismissive of the way many Magic the Gathering players enjoy the format. I enjoy grinding tournaments for Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, AND COMMANDER.
I loved the scenario about 1 cedh deck in a non-cedh pod. My friend Dustin would bring his cedh deck and when he declared that hed be playing it the other three of us would gang up on him in the goal of beating him before he could end the match. It was almost like its own game mode that i named “raid boss” and it was fun in its own way. It was a fair-ish 1v3 which was interesting
This isn't Dies to Doom Blade.
#SOON
Underrated comment.
I loved this video and I love watching Playing With Power. I play CEDH and in my state (Montana) the cedh community isnt large, but there is a yearly Commander Championship tournament and it always lures the best of the best EDH players for a chance at a cool custom deck box (among other prizes). Watching their channel helps me understand a lot of the interactions that happen at the tournament as I cant practice against them. Also loved this episode and I'm really digging this new podcast.
See you on the 21st for the championship!
cEDH is the most pure form of commander in my opinion. I love it! cEDH is for the people who are very competitive
Casual edh is fun as well I just like being really competitive
Cool story. But commander is designed and handeled as a casual format for less competitive people. Have you seen the banlist? It is a mess. You can play it competitively, sure. I do too, sometimes. But "the purest form" just ignores the history of the format. I found Canadian highlander to be MUCH more fun competitively.
Wow this was very informative, made me look at it 100% different. Also found new channels to watch off this vid, thankyou 👍
42:30 louder for those in the back.
Thanks, Prof and Ryan!
I cannot understand how someone can resent cEDH players. They're doing the same things we casual players are doing. They're just more efficient.
But combo bad not combo good
I love cedh it is my preferred format thank you both so much on shedding light on how cedh is amazing
The 43 thumbs down are Brawl players...
Really enjoyed you guys shedding some light on what cEDH is and isn't! Who thought I could learn something from a Prof. :)
I play both and love playing each. Playing both edh and cedh definitely opens up your mind to different interactions and tons of new experiences. I reccomend trying both out.