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.
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