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Title: I thought EDH was a "fun" format
Date Posted: Thu Feb/09/12 at 7:04pm

BebopDaBebop
Posts: 52
Joined: 21-Oct-10

So I played some Commander in MTGO and came away with some really bad experiences.

For example, I was playing a 4-player match and one of my opponents was playing Mayael. Mayael used her ability to drop a Terestrodon, popping off 3 out of my 4 swamps by the fourth turn. I called him out and basically said WTF, and his response was "sorry, you just had to go." So yeah, that's fun. My next match one of my opponents countered my general and dropped him to the bottom of my library before I had a chance to play him once. Playing "Commander" isn't really very fun when you're forced to play commanderless. Of course later he also got the infinite combo off.

Another memorable round came when three out of the four of us were stuck in sort of a stalemate, while the 4th guy was turtling the whole match, until he got an infinite mana combo off with Palinchron, and then cast Exsanguinate. Honestly, how is that fun?

I guess maybe it's just me, but this kind of thing kind of wreaks of bad sportsmanship in a format that exists for the sole purpose of being fun to play. I've played Commander with friends before, and if anyone tried those kinds of shennanigans, we probably wouldn't be playing with them anymore. I was just wondering how others felt about the format, and if you play among friends with any sort of restrictions to try and keep the games more fun.
Date Posted: Thu Feb/09/12 at 7:14pm

TheCaptain
Posts: 909
Joined: 13-Apr-11

Eh, don't let those people get to you. Now I don't know how MTGO works, I use cockatrice, and people make distinctions in game names about whether is competitive or casual. I suggest you try to make that distinction in the games you play. As for losing your commander, theres a reason that most people run oblation, hinder, spell crumple, chaos warp, and things like that. Thats just part of EDH, the best way to deal with decks is to get rid of commanders. When you're making your decks, either have a way to tutor up your general if you lose him/her, or build it so you could still play without it.

I also don't care if I win or lose, so maybe you should consider not caring either. Even though these people may be taking it too seriously, you're probably taking it a little too seriously if you're complaining about people building competitive decks. Remember, it's a card game.
Date Posted: Thu Feb/09/12 at 7:23pm

PinkiePie
Posts: 157
Joined: 10-Sep-11

MTGO sucks....!
Date Posted: Thu Feb/09/12 at 11:00pm

lin sivvi
Posts: 1608
Joined: 14-Jan-10

Commander was originally made to have one of the elder dragon legends as your commander, but with all legends available allows for some extreme combos.  To help counter balance this, try putting on some interesting restrictions on the commander (any common creature is one of my favorites).  For example we recently finished at tournament  (Pinkie won) where the general had to be pre-visions, as a result everyone had to be very creative in how they made their deck.

For example, my deck was based on using kill spells and discard spells to slow down my opponent while buffing my general Puraj.  Two-gun on the other hand built a deck designed to stand on its own, with a general (Tresserhorn) that when he can get an advantage, can kill in 2 turns, you can ask what everyone else used in their deck(s).

But the others are right, EDH is a fun casual format, commander on the other hand is a highly competitive merciless format.  Also, free-for-alls are never as much fun as 1v1s or team battles.
Date Posted: Fri Feb/10/12 at 1:39am

shakii23
Posts: 5711
Joined: 08-Sep-09

commandeer is fun... is my spelling correct? fun to the other party while you're losing the match so yeah it is still competitive at some point... you do what you got to do to win with fun still there...
Date Posted: Fri Feb/10/12 at 5:40am

Turbine
Posts: 10194
Joined: 26-Oct-09

Isn't Commander just the Wizard's sanctioned version of EDH?
Date Posted: Fri Feb/10/12 at 8:16am

lin sivvi
Posts: 1608
Joined: 14-Jan-10

Sorta, EDH by its original rules only used the Elder Dragon Legends.
Date Posted: Fri Feb/10/12 at 10:44am

BebopDaBebop
Posts: 52
Joined: 21-Oct-10

@ The Captain

I wouldn't say I take the game too seriously. I honestly don't care if I win or lose, what matters more to me is that the game is actually fun. Having three of your four lands get blowed up the fourth turn is not fun, and neither is getting your commander hosed before you can even play him. I'm just complaining because people seem to be way too competitive-minded in a format that, supposedly, was designed from the ground up to be fun and casual.

It also seems completely antithetical to the theme of the format to have cards that can eliminate your general from the entire game. I can understand, flavorwise, how a general leads his troops into battle but is slain, then requires extra mana to resurrect. That makes sense in my head. But it doesn't make sense how you could lose track of your commander because he gets countered and shuffled into your deck, and then having to "diabolic tutor" to find him. If your commander gets exiled, you can choose to place him in the commander zone. Why can't it be the same way if he gets condemned or hindered?

Also, it seems silly to play "Commander" and pick your commander just for the colors, but yet it seems almost half the players I've run into go this route. At that rate, why not just play 100-card singleton?

I just think people need to consider "will this be fun to play" rather than "will this win me the game." For example, I could have put Contamination in my Endrek deck, but is it really fun to be able to completely shut certain opponents out of the game with a single card?

@ Pinka

I'm starting to realize this. LoL.

@ Lin

I knew EDH was the original "commander" and used the elder dragons, but ever since the commander format came out I always thought the terms were interchangeable.
Date Posted: Fri Feb/10/12 at 11:01am

BebopDaBebop
Posts: 52
Joined: 21-Oct-10

Oh and I wanted to ask, for those of you who use Cockatrice, how does it work exactly?

I did download it, but I only played around with it for a little while. The tools seem kind of limited though. That's the one nice thing about MTGO, is that once you're accustomed to it, the process is pretty streamlined. But, for example, the first thing I did in Cockatrice is try and create an Essence of the Wild deck, but I couldn't figure out how to get it to work. Would I just have to manually set the p/t of each creature that comes into play as 6/6?
Date Posted: Fri Feb/10/12 at 2:28pm

PinkiePie
Posts: 157
Joined: 10-Sep-11

Some people on cockatrice are douches too, but its a much lower number than mtgo!

http://cockatrice.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=keyboard_shortcuts
http://cockatrice.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=getting_started
http://cockatrice.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=frequently_asked_questions_faq

And yes, cockatrice is entirely user-piloted, unlike mtgo!

[Edited by PinkamenaDianePie on 10/Feb/12 at 2:29PM]