What I Learned from the Commander Format

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Introduction

Hello everyone, I’m faintmama, a middle-aged rookie player from Taipei. Congratulations to Guildmages’ Forum on turning one year old soon! Loyal readers will have noticed that the Guildmages’ Forum website has never had an article on the Commander format (hereafter EDH), so I’ll be the first to give it a birthday toast and share what I’ve learned from games over this period.

(I’ve been playing for one year and eleven months, so I’m barely the same age as Guildmages’ Forum blush.)

Let me briefly describe my view of EDH: card and deck strength matter, but they aren’t absolute; the players are the biggest factor deciding who wins. In a multiplayer setting, strong often means weak and weak often means strong; fast leads to slow and slow achieves fast. The result of standing out is getting ganged up on by the other three, while a low-key player waits for an opportunity and at some moment takes complete control of the game… If you’re willing to use your imagination with me, I’d say this is much like a great medieval war, or one launched by Phyrexia, full of deception and depth.

Winning feels amazing, and the losers seek comfort. The day you no longer need excuses to convince yourself is the day you’ve taken one step closer to getting stronger.

How to Find a Community That Suits You

Before getting into my story, I’d like to give potential newcomers some directions. If you’re interested in EDH but have no one around to lead you into the circle, here are a few ways to find like-minded people:

• Each store’s LINE community
  Mustering the courage to walk into a card shop is the fastest way. Ask the staff at the counter directly; not only can you get patient teaching and giveaways, but more importantly you can join the store’s LINE community. Organizing a group yourself or waiting passively both work; as long as your attitude is good, there’s a high chance of meeting great people. Over the past two years I’ve met many kind players who accompanied me as I learned this game, and who later became friends who look out for each other in life. If the veteran guiding you gets too excited and throws out a bunch of abstruse jargon, remember to remind him: “Sorry, I don’t understand… I’m just a noob, could you please speak plain language first”
  I’ve personally been to the following five card shops: 遊戲平方卡牌中心, 卡士多遊戲屋, CardMaster, 貓腳印 - 士林店, and Magic Star, and all have resident veteran players or owners and staff. Beyond these there are many other stores that offer a good play environment; it’s just that my legwork and experience aren’t broad enough…

• MTG Commander Meetup Group
  This should be the largest Commander LINE community in Taiwan. Games are mainly organized as regular EDH and cEDH, group members usually note their power level so everyone can understand the situation in advance, and there is also discussion and chat between players.
  I suggest first joining the Magic: The Gathering Commander Meetup Facebook group, after which an admin will review you for entry into the LINE group; from then on you can find people online and meet offline and go to war at lightning speed.

• Taipei Conquest Enthusiasts Group – Conquest format
  The Conquest format can be called a “variant” of EDH, with more banned cards, such as Rhystic Study (super card-advantage engine), Vampiric Tutor (cheap tutor), Sol Ring (powerful acceleration), and expensive, hard-to-get ancient powerhouse cards. The rules also differ slightly from regular EDH: a deck needs a minimum of 80 cards, each player has 30 life, commander damage is 12, the player on the draw gets extra scry, and so on. For detailed rules and the banned list, see the Draftsim website’s introduction, and I’m also attaching a Chinese version made by an enthusiastic player.

  Note: The Chinese banned-list version made by a player is not permanently valid, because an uploaded list cannot be replaced, so whenever the banned list changes it has to be re-linked. We’ll try to keep it updated, but I recommend consulting the official site version first.

  By my understanding, Conquest aims to make it easy for beginners and casual players to join, increase interaction in games, and give unpopular commanders room to put their creativity into practice. The Taipei Conquest Enthusiasts Group is the community I’m most passionate about; it has held thirty-two sessions so far and keeps records of each event. If you need, feel free to contact me to join.
  I recall that other regions also have players who have organized Conquest events; friends who know the details are welcome to leave a comment and share the information~

• Baghdad Trading Day event – French-banlist EDH knockout tournament
  I happened to take part in one this summer and found it a rather interesting experience. The atmosphere of the southern and northern communities differs slightly, with deeper friendships among existing players and hilarious roasting and trash talk. Once you have the chance to play a game, the veterans are also willing to kindly and warmly share their thoughts. Of course, there are also lots of players and stores trading physical cards on site, which is very lively. If you’re good at striking up conversations, I’d recommend taking a stroll over to Baghdad Trading Day.
  French-banlist EDH is a one-on-one competition, and it also has its own banned list and rules; see the introduction site. Since this article mainly introduces multiplayer games, I won’t go into the French-banlist format, only remind everyone that it is a 20-life format, which relatively suits an aggro mindset.
  At the time I entered with an Animar, Soul of Elements deck costing about 400 USD. Most of the players there were very polite and their decks were friendly, giving me a smooth run into the finals, but in the end I was completely run over by a Balmor, Battlemage Captain aggro deck on the play, so close, I hate it.

• 卡士多遊戲屋 – Monthly Commander tournament (Leviathan ban list)
  卡士多 is probably the Taipei card shop that holds Commander events most frequently, but like the French-banlist format, Leviathan Commander is also a one-on-one competition: 30 life, best of three, and before each game you can swap in a commander from your deck that fits your color identity (this is very interesting). For detailed rules see the official site; it likewise has its own banned list, and I’m also attaching a Chinese version made by an enthusiastic player.

  Note: The Chinese banned-list version made by a player is not permanently valid, because an uploaded list cannot be replaced, so whenever the banned list changes it has to be re-linked. We’ll try to keep it updated, but I recommend consulting the official site version first.

  I once entered with an Animar, Soul of Elements deck costing about 400 USD (feels familiar, right?). Most of the players there were very polite (feels familiar, right?), but some folks’ decks were sharpened a bit more keenly. I once took third place in this format, and with a Fun Deck I landed in seventh or eighth place. Most importantly, I got to play against and learn from the veteran-generation strong player Jru; this experience was very precious, and I am still his old fan to this day.

Fresh Out of the Gate: The Power of Rookies

Back to the main topic. Today, thirteen years after the Commander format was created, many players are already quite familiar with the rules and keep playing it as casual entertainment to enjoy life. After all, a mature multiplayer game is not common in the TCG world, and from this angle I’d be willing to say Commander is the most top-tier format. However, the complexity of the rules, the stack, and so on is also the champion of the TCG world, which directly makes it hard for newcomers to join.

Some people suggest starting beginners with the “Standard” format, because the environment is simpler and players can quickly get up to speed. But what if a newcomer is set on joining Magic precisely for the “multiplayer” element? Then you might as well join Commander directly! Because passion is the most precious and powerful ability, and besides, newcomers have a passive skill called “Rookie Power”, which is surprisingly strong.

Most of the game descriptions in the following article come from my experience in the Conquest format.

Nearly two years ago, by a twist of fate I decided to muster the courage to walk into a card shop, with the aim of joining the Commander world I had long yearned for. At that time I didn’t even understand untap, upkeep, and draw, and fortunately I met my first benefactor, Jeff, who guided me and helped me find a suitable community.

Recalling the situation of my first real battle, I brought a “doggy blocks and also drains life combo” deck with Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful + Sengir, the Dark Baron, and took second place despite being unfamiliar with the rules and the environment. In the following eight gatherings, I got four more second places, two third places, and two fourth places, all within the finalists; I think the results were decent.

But I just couldn’t get first place…

As my understanding of the game deepened, I began to realize the biggest flaw of the Commander format on the competitive side: the “distortion” of rankings. Apart from first place, the other results don’t necessarily reflect players’ real strength, because the second-strongest player may have been focused down and ganged up on and fell early, while the person who lived to the end was underestimated because he wasn’t dominant enough or was really such a wimp that he protected himself too well, so I started to be unwilling to always be runner-up in the Commander world.

It was not until my ninth attempt that I used a gift card obtained at a previous gathering, Syr Konrad, the Grim, to build a “creatures entering or leaving the graveyard drain all opponents” theme, and combined with the veterans’ pity and the underestimating Rookie Power buff, I finally used Ashnod’s Altar as an engine for sacrificing creatures and successfully killed all the players, fulfilling a long-held wish. Although that Syr Konrad, the Grim is worth basically nothing and isn’t even a foil version, he is without doubt my most important card, witnessing my progress and recording the friendship between friends.

That said, my Syr Konrad, the Grim deck was actually not comprehensive enough; being unable to answer the opponent’s strong enchantments is mono-black’s original sin. If no other player had dealt with the Dauthi Voidwalker standing on the battlefield, I wouldn’t have had a chance to win that game because creatures can’t even get into the graveyard, oh my god.

But I could finally see a chance to win, and I desperately seized it. This was the first chapter of my story in the Conquest format, and it happened to prove the reality of Rookie Power, which I chose to exploit in a sneaky and clever way.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and stranger.

Honest Goading: The Art of the Silver Tongue

I think goad is a super powerful keyword ability, and the rules are roughly as follows: “If you goad a creature, that creature attacks each combat if able during its controller’s next turn and attacks a player other than you if able.” It usually makes other people’s big guys crash into other players while you reap the benefits.

In my rookie days I loved bringing Bloodthirsty Blade, constantly enjoying other people’s big creatures while I could hoard resources in the meantime; even without precise calculation I knew it was a hugely profitable choice. But later I stopped bringing Bloodthirsty Blade, and even stopped putting any goad-related cards in at all. It’s not that I no longer liked it; I still love goading, but I do it with my own mouth blush.

To be honest, my diplomatic strategy is honesty. Because I never bluff and I carry out the actions I promise, whenever any player chooses who to cooperate with temporarily, my words carry a bit more weight.

The power of the rookie gradually wore off on me, and my collection of powerful cards was far behind the veterans’, so I urgently needed to find a superpower of my own, and thus the Art of the Silver Tongue was born.

Let me share some simple practical scenarios (all using a four-player game as an example): When you are clearly the weakest and least threatening player, state your position clearly, then help others in exchange for space, striving for a chance to turn the game around in the end. Once, while playing Animar, Soul of Elements, I was stuck on colors forever, but by serving the dominant player I earned a shot at “if I draw a creature I win” (if achieved, I could use Fauna Shaman to find the combo and win), but unfortunately I flipped a land… I also once used Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss to reverse a predicament of three straight one-land opening hands: by helping Laelia, the Blade Reforged kill Urza, Lord High Artificer, then immediately killing the player of Laelia, the Blade Reforged, I just seized the chance to turn it around.

When you are the second or third strongest player, bravely ally to deal with the clearly dominant player! Then carefully assess each other’s thinking, which changes quickly over time. Cleverly keep the other side in check without breaking the game; I’m used to controlling the board with cards that “hurt you out of necessity”, while pretending to be innocent.

And these principles are not absolute, because the habits of the other players must also be taken into account: some firmly ignore diplomacy, some are only there to prank for fun, some are used to giving up early, some can’t read the situation on the board… Now I’d say nothing is right or wrong, only a question of understanding or not.

In my community, there’s a strong player whose skills are already very polished who often plays Shorikai, Genesis Engine, a very powerful card it’s not even a creature, so sometimes it’s hard to kill. A player once said it was hard to handle, but I have a different view: choosing a powerful commander means attracting fire, which is difficulty of another sort; as long as the other players clearly ally, the strongest player on the table instead easily goes down early, and he also has no possibility of “playing the pig to eat the tiger” (sandbagging), so there’s less flexibility in the psychological game, and he can only charge straight toward victory.

When you are the strongest player in sight, what more can I say? Hurry up and win the game, and beware the others about to join forces for a counterattack.

Cultivation with Green

Later, I took a “pirates’ treasure makes me rich” deck with Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator + Francisco, Fowl Marauder and a “one person takes a beating, three get implicated” deck with Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist + Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar, and won first place two more times. The Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist + Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar combination was my most solid win, resisting repeated stops by a blue-playing opponent and successfully killing all opponents with unceasing attacks. Two-Handed Axe is a card I’m very satisfied with, letting you burst out two combat rounds instantly in late-game situations with limited cards in hand. Boros is a color pair well suited for newcomers to try, with an approachable thought process and cost, and its competitiveness is definitely not inferior to other color pairs.

But then the problem came again, life is just like this, sigh… I found I’m not good at playing green, and I really want to win a championship with a green deck once. (Writing this I realize I have quite a lot of obsessions.)

Don’t misunderstand me; I think green is strong, super strong, but its strength is “within a range everyone else can also see”, so the deliberately-yet-seemingly-casual sighs, the misleading glances at my hand… all these sneaky habits are hard to pull off in a green-based deck. The other three see the strength on the table clearly, and no one pays special attention to your acting anymore, because everything is too obvious.

So you can only win through powerful cards, excellent chaining, and upright strength. From April to July this year, every deck I played included green, and I couldn’t win a championship in any tournament. After being silent for a whole season, I was able to see a new battlefield, which is my own thoughts.

By observing myself and my playgroup, I deeply understand that “a casual attitude can’t win”, and I also realized that “an overly serious attitude is hard to win with”. Being too fixated, you already burn a lot of energy before you even sit at the table; being calm and at peace is the ideal competitive state, but you must also add the effort you’ve accumulated before to call it mature. But since you’ve already tried hard, even to a very hard degree, how can you not be fixated?

Compared with the psychological warfare against other players, I find the battle within my own heart much harder.

During those silent three-plus months, I became keen on Limited. After going through three sets, Outlaws of Thunder Junction (OTJ), Modern Horizons 3 (MH3), and Bloomburrow (BLB), my views on cards and my understanding of the rules improved further, and I let go of the obsession with chasing mainstream strong cards. After all, in the world of multiplayer games, strong often means weak and weak often means strong, so I successfully convinced myself that I might as well enjoy the party feel of every Sealed event! With my head no longer full of psychological warfare, deck building, and the like, I was able to accumulate more correct concepts and slowly get stronger steadily.

In the process, I happened to meet the members of Guildmages’ Forum, and became a player who steadily gets two wins in Limited (a new desire appeared… I really want to get three wins). Life is truly marvelous. When I got used to the disappointment of being runner-up and could begin to take it calmly, the story of Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss mentioned earlier just came about. Reversing the predicament of three straight one-land opening hands, by helping Laelia, the Blade Reforged kill Urza, Lord High Artificer, then immediately killing the player of Laelia, the Blade Reforged, I seized the chance to turn it around and finally took my fourth championship.

Was it fate? Or did I truly learn by analogy and achieve the goal? I don’t know. In any case, I feel I’m a very lucky person, and the adversity I encounter always turns into gains.

I no longer force myself to play green, and the player of Laelia, the Blade Reforged killed the whole table at the next gathering and returned to first place. After the serious game ended, I was happy for him, and I know he’d be happy for my progress too. In the end, the greatest essence of the Commander format should be that it let me befriend a group of people who support each other.

A Graduation Without Graduating

From not understanding untap, upkeep, and draw, to goading the whole table using my rookie standing, to resisting a blue-playing opponent and winning squarely, to now having some grasp of the rhythm of each of the five colors, I’ve begun to fall in love with Limited.

Constructed has its own beauty, with every card choice an extension of the player’s will. That said, there is still one deciding factor besides luck in it, and that is the player themselves. Give the same deck to players with completely different habits, and it will show different aspects of its charm. In this game, we really are beings in the same dimension as planeswalkers, and every match can be a top-tier showdown between players, making the most difficult and most brilliant decisions again and again in the most difficult TCG world.

I know I’m someone who wants to win, and I enjoy walking the road to victory. Limited is the field where I can walk side by side with veterans, at least without having to spend a large sum of cash buying certain bomb cards I’m saving money. Of course, Limited has its own knacks and even more details, and in the process of studying and improving I occasionally go crazy, but at thirty-six I understand myself better than before, and even if I can’t leave footprints in the Limited field in the end, I think I can be content with my effort and attempts.

As for which stage of my story carries the most weight, I think they are all important. Every stretch of the road walked with enthusiasm may become an interesting memory of your own, and each has its necessity.

These days I study and optimize Commander decks less, but I believe the good friends I met in the Conquest format will accompany each other along life’s road, and then try every means to beat each other up at the next gathering. We’ll keep walking on, and I’ve even prepared twenty decks waiting to serve you all.

About the content of this article, I’m not worried at all about exposing my secret moves. Even if anyone now knows that I deliberately sigh and check my hand, I’ll try to give deeper hints on top of the opponent’s anticipation. I’m devious, and this game is fun, so let’s cherish the hard-won playgroup and keep enjoying Magic: The Gathering together!

Conclusion

To be honest, I occasionally visit that fan page, but I have absolutely no intention of liking or following it. Haters hiding in the shadows criticizing those who are flawed but clearly working harder makes no sense to me.

I’m not young anymore, and I still believe we can make the environment better, treating each other kindly while eliminating some hatred. Everyone has their own shortcomings, so we might as well choose understanding and tolerance, and once we’re at the table, strike hard at the opponent’s pain points!

I think this is the charm of Magic: The Gathering, right? As we grow older, we also learn to respect friends who think differently. I wish everyone, like me, meets veterans who are easy to get along with and then successfully learns how to beat them up.

I’ve been in this game for less than two years, so there may not be many concepts I can share with readers. In the future I’ll continue to accompany Guildmages’ Forum in the role of an editor, and look forward to the team creating more and better articles for the Chinese-speaking community. This is also one of the games I want to play well: maybe one day we’ll be noticed by Magic’s official side, and maybe we could land our first sponsored post… My partners are truly dedicated, and I think they absolutely deserve it, and I’ll keep contributing to this team.

Finally, the following opinion does not represent the other members of the website; it’s only what I personally want to say: “that fan page” should not be the Chinese-language fan page with the largest flow of information. I really do dislike this status quo, and also want newcomers who are still watching from the sidelines to feel safe joining the circle.

In any case, I’m committed to playing this game outside the game too. Passionate players are welcome to connect with us. If you like this article, please like, comment, and share, and please accompany us as we reach new heights!