Commander emerged in most Magic players awareness in 2011 with the release of the Commander Pre-cons. Dubbed the format for casual players it quickly grew in popularity to where we are today. Commander is the most popular way to play Magic: the Gathering and it player base continues to grow. Join us as we discuss how we got here, the current problems Magic is facing because of this, and where MTG might go from here.
Great discussion on Commander, Standard and competitive formats, and Magic’s philosophies over their history.
whats up with mtg making cards based on movie genre?
As more and more competitive players join the play group at my shop the less overall players I see. And many of the competitive players seem to want to play competitive against casual players, not other competitive players.
The casual players are my backbone. Eventually the competitive players (who really are just sore losers, and mostly learned how to play Commander and not Magic… but that is a whole different issue with the game) tire of not being able to steamroll casuals, or get tired of actual cEDH players curb-stomping them and stop coming.
I tell players, “it is easier for a competitive player to play casually, than a casual player to play competitive.”
Tbh, I think having a baseline competency is almost essential to true casual play (not just magic). I think we’ve all had our kind of garbage tier commander taken out with premium removal because, uhhh, it has deathtouch. Beginners should actually be trying to play as competitively as they can, learning on the most effective tactics. When they do that, they will inevitably get good enough to build their cat deck that only has odd mana costs.
My casual players are not all new players, many like me are players who have played for years and are tired of the fast paced games. We would rather chat and throw spells than try to win on turn 3.
Spice of life and all that, but I’d rather play a handful of 1v1 or 2HG games and then sit and chat with a beer after playing for the remaining 2 hours.
Maybe that’s just me being competitive?
@nokturne213 @mike so yes this hasn’t changed much since I started playing in the 90’s. I always felt those playing type 2(showing my age) or limited events enjoyed it more and we’re great fun to play against.
I enjoy playing commander but only against a few people who don’t take it too seriously… But prefer limited events as everyone is on the same level.@cha1n@mastodon.scot I started playing Magic the week of alpha’s release. I only ever played in a couple local competitive events. I do miss the days of being able to only every single Magic card ever printed.
@nokturne213 that’s very cool… ironically I found out about it when MicroProse released the game on the PC… and I remember showing my friend and him turning to me and saying oh yes I have some cards…
…and that ladies and gentlemen is where all my money went for the next 30 years… ahem…
I never understood the appeal of commander, always thought it was a bit shit. Give me a good draft any day of the week instead.
I never really got into commander either, but the bracket system makes it more appealing to me at least. No need to worry that someone’s just going to go off turn 2 when going against a sand tribal deck, a madness deck, and a mono green control deck.
Either way, standard always interested me the most, but they absolutely shafted standard so now if I play it’s basically just brawl these days because of the matchmaker.
Draft is fun as well, just expensive to get into :(
Always completely hated drafts, jumped on the commander train as soon as I discovered the format. Pretty cool the game has all these formats :D
Oh yeh, variety is the spice of life for sure!
It’s a fun format where you get to use whacky cards no longer viable in Legacy/Vintage, like Palnichron or Hazezon Tamar. Unfortunately, the banlist has been rather arbitrary, so instead of getting something like Prismatic, you just end up with more expensive, imbalanced Legacy. The higher life totals don’t help, either.
As a Johnny-Spike, I kind of loathe the so-called casual players. They are “”““casual””“” only when they’re winning, then turn into sore losers anytime they lose. I’ve seen more meltdowns at EDH tables than I have at comp REL events. I gave up on the format when they unbanned Metalworker.
Yeh I couldn’t be dealing with ban lists and bollocks like that and I can deal with other people even less so I don’t get involved on that level. Me and friends just get booster boxes and play for the enjoyment. Nice and casual xD
