Commander feels like it mostly sparks social activity and gives people the chance to pull off crazy stunts. My over-competitiveness finds the lack of structure and prizes in Commander really boring, and I never take it seriously enough to make a deck that can actually win. I'm sort of excited about the pre-made decks coming out, they should allow me to get a little more into it without having to push myself to make a "competitive Commander" deck.

I say all of this with respect to paper Magic. I don't think I would enjoy Commander without the social aspect.

I thought I would really like commander until I built a commander deck and tried to play some games with people. Its absurd how long things take with 4 people in a game.

Think I'll be sticking with Momir Basic then... it's goofy and not at all like regular Magic, but it's super cheap and games don't take very long, which are both big upsides for a casual format.

This.

Also, even when I play casually I can't stand games where people get mad if you try too hard to win. Commander is one of those formats where known degenerate strategies are only kept in check by social disapproval.

Ah... yuck. I like my casual formats without insane degenerate strategies, but I prefer it to be part of the rules/format, not because "If you do it, everyone thinks you're a meanieface."

Either you try "too hard" to win and everyone gets pissed, or you don't, and someone else blows you out.

I mean, I get that people don't want you bringing combo decks that play solitare for 15 minutes on turn 5 and then either kill everyone at the table or fizzle out. That sucks for everyone but you. But if something like that is an issue, it should be taken care of with a banned list imo.

Maybe I've just had too many experiences playing live Magic where the guy sits down at the table playing ProsBloom (dating myself there, heh), starts going off, draws a **** ton of cards, then has 1-2 minutes where he's just staring at his cards trying to figure out how to keep going off, then he plays another spell, then stares at his hand for another 45 seconds, etc.

Prosbloom just comes to mind as the worst offender because it seemed like tons of people were playing it, and only 10% knew wtf they were doing with it. It wasn't an issue of winning or losing at this point, it was "It's boring sitting here for 10 minutes while you stare at your cards and look confused."

Basically any time you're playing a deck where you need to pull out a pen and paper to track what's going on (mana in your mana pool, spells you've cast this turn, etc.) I hope you die in a fire. But if the format allows it, it allows it (I just hope all your stuff gets banned).

At least on MTGO you can hit F6 and go make a sandwich.

You don't want a 500card banned list either, which is the other option to stop cheesy degenerate junk

You aren't on time constraints like legacy so there are hundreds of easy to setup combos that end games regardless of number of ppl playing

Normally I don't complain about people multi-queueing or whatever, but just now I had the following happen:

Round 1: My opponent is taking 30-60 seconds every time I pass him priority. We're in the first turns of game 2 when he realizes he has 50 seconds left on his clock and concedes.

Round 2: My opponent does nothing for the first six minutes, then shows up and plays slowly through game 1, using up 15 minutes of game clock on a game that lasts maybe 9-10 turns. He rushes through game 2, then returns to playing slowly in game 3. We finish the match with 1:28 on his clock.

Round 3: My opponent does nothing for the first nine minutes, concedes the game, lets the sideboard timer run out, then lets the timer run on game 2. He just chose to play first and keep his hand with 11 minutes of his timer left, and is now sitting and doing nothing again.

I mean, yay free wins or whatever, but what a cluster****. If I had known I was signing up for 2.5 hours of doing nothing, I would have done just about anything else.

Probably all true. I doubt I would play Commander even if they tried to balance it; that was just a big reason why I don't play it.

"Commander is a format where you're supposed to put Sol Ring in your deck but apologize if you draw it" --Aaron Forsythe

Yeah this is one of the reasons I don't multiqueue anymore. It is too annoying to play against. (Well, I have never timed out with 2 games but it is still frustrating for others)

I'm all in on fabled heroes! I can't find any more to buy.

Wizards pushed SolRing too by putting it in all the precons

It's the kind of card that should have just been banned though when people aren't trying to do degenerate things it's not so bad

Rationale?

It's a powerful effect its not that hard to make it a 2turn clock

I can definitely see how it can be a strong card but I'm not sure what constructed deck it fits in. It's a little on the expensive side for white weenie and doesn't fit in the orzhov deck that's popular at the moment. You probably have to build a deck specifically around that card and if you are targeting it without having a gods willing in your hand it seems like you're going to get 2-for-1ed a lot given the amount of removal in the popular decks at the moment.

I also like Hero, it is especially sweet with madcap skills. It is extremely dangerous to let opponent untap with Hero in play because of Gods Willing and Brave the Elements. Still, not huge fan of your plan to buy them if you look at what prices some rtr staples have.

My logic is that it's a potentially very powerful card in the right deck and they cost 20 cents. I'm gambling with $50 to fund my addiction for quite some time!

I now have 150 and 8 foils!

Plus even if you're wrong it's kinda fun to laugh at with people after.

When RTR was the newest set I bought about 40 fireminds foresight for a few bucks on the hopes that it was a card that could find a home as a 2-of in a block that already contained a Jace, Supreme Verdict, Sphinx's Rev, and was rumored to have Ral Zarek.

It was hilariously wrong but the worst that happens is it costs a bit of tix. You don't need to hit very often when they can go from 0.10-0.20 to 3-4 tickets a piece.

combo cards are where it's at

a card that is horrid like dark depths can turn into an instant powerhouse if wotc messes up, and when it does it has a much higher spike in price too

New cards are bad speculation targets because there are so many in market. Pick some old card. (I have 100+ Stirring Wildwoods because they were 0.5 when some of the WWK manlands were 7-10). Wildwoods are now 1, but have been up to 2 and I think it is possible they will be ~5 next modern season if junk becomes popular.

Everyone on the internet says to play 8-4 drafts or Swiss drafts because their EVs are greater than 4-3-2-2 EV. I've been playing Magic for a few months now, and from watching some solid 8-4 regulars, I feel like the level of play in those games is too high for me to handle. But I'm getting tired of playing Swiss because of its time commitment (the single elimination drafts seem to run more quickly, and they only require 3 rounds if you made it to the finals). Do 4-3-2-2's have softer competition? If they do, could 4-3-2-2s be a better choice for me, or are 8-4 drafts strictly better than playing 4-3-2-2's? Just for reference, my rating went down to ~1575 when I started playing, then has drifted slowly upwards since to around 1675 now.

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...?Article=23102

old information, but the point is the same. Softer competition, maybe a little bit. Most people run 8-4s or swiss. 4322 are often people who don't think about the EV or overestimate their ability to win round 1.

On that point, is there a way to analyse your results, in the same way that PT or HEM would do? or at least on a basic way (eg, % win of round 1, 2, 3, etc.)

Spreadsheets bro

The Commander thing is pretty puerile. It isn't just broken combos. I don't play multiplayer, but I do have a Commander deck because people around here like to play it before tournaments or in between tournament rounds. My General is Skythirix, and people tend to have a really hard time with that. And it's ridiculous. Okay, so my General basically has quadrouple strike. I have to restrict myself to playing mono black for that perk, but otherwise my deck isn't trying to do anything absurdly unfair. Sure, I have some very powerful cards like Necropotence and Demonic Tutor. In all honesty, the objections I hear from people crying about something not being in the "spirit of the format" essentially translate to, "you're interacting with me." Most Commander players seem to want to be left alone for 7 or 8 turns to do whatever insane thing they designed their deck to do. They don't want to play Magic. They want to Goldfish.

lol commander