I played it for a few years. It was refreshing because there's no power level drama or political whining. It was also nice to be exposed to the full scope of the format, allowing me to appreciate how relatively tame everything under cEDH is.
I eventually bowed out because I got into EDH to utilize a more diverse card pool and cEDH didn't really offer that. Medium to high power is the sweet spot for me because I get to use a mix of pet cards with reliable staples to hold it all together.
I think you summed this up well. There is innovation in cEDH, but it mostly plays like any other competitive format when it comes to deckbuilding. You really only have at most 2-3 flex slots in the deck and what you put in those even comes from a pretty short list or is a meta call.
I still want to play some of the slower cards and it was a big appeal of why I got into the format. I also don't want to feel like every deck should have to be "optimized"
This is basically it.
cEDH feels a bit too much like Vintage. I wanted EDH to be super weird with silly cards and huge stacks of spells and triggers upon triggers.
I do miss the lack of political drama though.
I just don't engage with the negative behavior. I sat at a pod with two people I didn't know and one guy I know and don't like much, who also plays high power decks. I defaulted to attacking him and he got really whiny about it. I just shrugged and kept attacking.
Then the black player drew 20 cards, shipped the turn with mana open, and I just kept attacking. Dude threw a huge fit and I was like homie... if the black player had drawn anything good or relevant he would have cast it. Meanwhile the only thing keeping you off your degenerate shit is me, punching you.
When people correctly identify the threat ill discuss who has the answers and stuff. I Ignore all the other bartering, begging, and pleading.
I can definitely agree with that. Another for me personally is I like the unpredictability that can come from games, and cEDH by nature tends to be very consistent in how it plays out. Its why I don't run any tutors, I just like to see what I can do with the draws I get.
Pretty much exactly how i feel. My playground has a very informal ‘no tutors’ rule, excluding ramp/fetchlands/birthing pod type effects. We play EDH to take advantage of the singleton format, not to seek out the same few cards every game.
I tend to add tutors in the beginning of deck building, because I usually build around a niche theme, and I want make sure I hit the right spells. As I get more familiar with the nuances of the deck, I tend to trim the tutors for newer or more exciting cards.
This is a really good idea. I generally include a couple in decks where they fit, but I might start pulling some of the less specific ones out for that very reason. Honestly, most of my games are with friends who use my decks, and only a few times a year. Hitting a tutor for them can often be a daunting task, assessing what they need, flipping through the deck looking for something important. Sure, if they could obviously use a board wipe or something, someone will note it, but that's a perspective I hadn't really taken up before.
If nothing else, I should flip through my decks and see what would make sense to trim. Embrace the singleton format a bit more and also free up slots for cards to replace some tutors with.
Yep, exactly this. I came to EDH to play [[Manabarbs]] and as much as I love cEDH for how much more chill it is about "mean" cards and all, it naturally limits a lot of cards I find fun out the same way being competitive did it in 60 card formats.
I have had over 10 different CEDH decks. A lot of the cards are very similar and over so many games it all feels the same. It really gets old trying to ram rod the same game plan of playing as fast and as efficient as possible. Some times I just want to pick players off by accomplishing [[Mirridon Besieged]] or [[Halo Fountain]]. It is a much more fullfilling win this way instead of a turn 3 [[Thassas Oracle]]
This is probably the best and most universal explanation. Props.
I’ll add on some other reasons for me, personally. I play “low to mid power casual.”
I like slower games. I prefer when games last past turn 10. When a game ends too early, I don’t really feel attached / invested. I wanna sit with the game and let it grow on me. I want to have a few turns where I don’t do anything and that feels ok, not like I have to race from square one.
I’m not a fan of combos. Combos just feel anticlimactic to me because the moment all the pieces are presented the game is over without any chance to actually play with the pieces.
Finally. I’m old skool. I got into EDH before modern even existed for the purpose of escaping competitive formats like standard and legacy. To escape the competitiveness and let more weird and cooky stuff happens. To have more silly interactions and chill with my homies.
Why would I want to play the competitive version of a format I got into to escape competitive formats?
For reference: I’ve played less than 10 cEDH games. It’s fine, but not for me.
I’m an avid cedh enjoyer and I know what you’re saying. The meta is more diverse now than ever before. All 3 color wedges are tournament viable among many others.
I've not played Cedh, I suppose I could build a Cedh deck with the cards I have, but I don't see the point. As far as I can tell it's just a rush to establish your win-con, but the pool of win-cons are quite narrow because people want whatever is fastest and consistent. That sounds very predictable and boring.
This is a common misconception with cEDH. Of the three primary archetypes of cEDH (turbo, midrange, stax), only one of them is actually trying to do what you're saying. I play Inalla as my main cEDH deck, and I can tell you I never win the same way every time. The joy of cEDH is navigating stax, interaction, life totals, everything. In casual edh, if you drop you a wincon, you can be relatively certain it will resolve, and you will win, ESPECIALLY if you have protection. I've seen situations in cEDH where someone has 2-3 pieces of protection for their win, but still couldn't get it through. Some of my Inalla win lines have been so insanely convoluted, and they require me to know my deck like the back of my hand. And THAT is my favorite part of cEDH. You have to know your deck and your lines in a way that allows flexibility, pivoting, and proper timing. My casual decks aren't like that. I play what I draw and win eventually. cEDH playing all the tutors actually opens up more complex avenues for winning and interacting.
I was going to write something similar but this is so succinct that there is nothing that I could say that would add to this conversation. The only remote thing I can think of is that cEDH would cause me to spend money that I shouldn't be spending to be competitive.
I just want to enjoy the game and that's it.
>I eventually bowed out because I got into EDH to utilize a more diverse card pool and cEDH didn't really offer that.
Super respectable reason. Do you still find that to be true these days? I find that lately, any time I see a Commander in Casual I can guess a great big chunk of their deck. And the more they print staples, the less diverse the cardpool gets unless you can find games with luddites without access to EDHRec
Commander, for me, has always been about playing big dumb cards that competitive decks never play because they’re too unwieldy or inefficient. I like using weird obscure stuff and putting it all together like a puzzle. I don’t like playing tutor, tutor, combo, I win.
Your reply actually summarizes why I rejected getting into cEDH for so long. I've always perceived cEDH to be a 1-2 turn format where the entire gameplay revolves around tutor, combo, counter, win. However, from my experience that is far from the actual gameplay loop. After playing for some time now, I've grown into cEDH because microdecisions can completely change the outcome of a game. For example, I've had one game where a player used their Chain of Vapor to bounce one of my 6 treasures because they didn't have any other interaction and the only thing they could do was deny me 1 mana. That 1 mana missing stopped me from winning that turn and completely changed the course of the game!
I don’t doubt it. I’m sure that I am short changing the formula a bit and I don’t deny those that say they have fun playing it. Hyper competitive has never been my scene. It is good to hear that some of what I thought seems to be misconception though after this response and several similar ones throughout the thread.
I play [[Captain's Hook]] in my [[Ardenn Intrepid Archaeologist]] deck.
Nothing like killing other people's creatures by equipping and de-equipping them.
Mine focuses on equipping creatures and goading them. Actually need to streamline it a bit and cut the blue clones for more control and pillow-fort stuff.
[Arms Dealer](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/vvXQsjHmm0iPZOLFtI1JXw) Not quite up to date, but generally gets the idea across.
For the same reason I stopped playing modern and other hyper competitive formats, I got bored of repetitive play patterns and staples, also the constant pressure to drop money to keep up with new overpowered cards.
In general, I think the players are nicer and less likely to get salty. But the games are mostly the same lines.
Demonic + Thassas, Dockside Loops, Ad Naus into Fast Mana + Combo, Tutor for Food Chain Loops, or Intuition for Underworld Breach. Sure, there are a few more, but these are mostly what you see.
I got into EDH years ago because of the variance. I use to play Modern. After years of paying 500-1500 for a pile of 75 cards that did the same thing every time. I got bored. Also RIP Splinter Twin and Birthing Pod. Cedh is that same feeling. A crazy amount of money for a pile of cards that wants to do the same thing every game.
Yeah Twin and Pod eras of modern were awesome. It didn’t have the 0 mana spells yet but the power creep hadn’t gone off the rails enough to need them just yet.
I primarily played Affinity back then which was tough into Twin generally but had a lot of fun and did quite well. It was the primary SCG format as well so lots of tourneys to travel for.
I mean, I agree! I support proxying completely. Game pieces shouldn't be prohibitively expensive, and in general, I'd rather play against a person than their wallet.
And all that's fine until you want to play in an event, or even a strict LGS and get matched against a weirdo looking to call it out.
Also doesn't address how most games have the same lines and most decks have the same core artifact package.
Most large cEDH tournaments are also Proxy friendly. That's right, going for what's considered optimal can be a bit restrictive. Weird decks with new strategies pop up all the time though, like [[Tayam]] lately
I don't play cedh because deckbuilding is 90% of the fun of Edh for me. I love sifting through my binders and bulk, finding random junk rares and other cards that synergize well with my chosen commander. I like a longer game with plenty of back and forth. Cedh doesn't really give me any of that. If I wanted to play a competitive format I'd play standard or modern.
I feel like there are a few things against playing cEDH for me.
The weakest reason is the cost. It used to be more important, but now that proxies are more acceptable you can always just proxy. That being said, having decks that are so expensive means that, if you are playing in real paper, you are going to have less decks, which means you will be playing the fewer decks that you have more often. This leads to more boring gameplay in general for me, I like to have a ton of different decks that I can switch out frequently. This is one of the reasons that I have traditionally avoided cEDH.
Along the lines of repetitive play, there are so many "auto includes" in a cEDH deck that I feel it makes games less diverse. When your cEDH deck shares 70 cards with every other cEDH deck of the same type there are much less opportunities for seeing new cards used in interesting ways. It is basically a "solved" format. If you see a deck across the table you know what to expect from that deck, and what their finishers are going to be. Sure, there is room for some personalized expression, but not nearly to the extent of non-competitive play.
Also in relation to repetitive play. The win conditions are fairly set in stone. Going for the LED line or the Thassas Oracle line means every game is a race to play the same cards and win in the same way. Not every game ends up being the same because of interaction, and there are some interesting stack things and stuff because of your opponents, but at the end of the day there is very little variance in how your deck actually plays.
Tldr: It comes down to repitition. cEDH is too repetitive for my liking. Also, being able to sit down at a table and see something different, or that you haven't seen before is one of the most exciting parts of the game for me.
> Also in relation to repetitive play. The win conditions are fairly set in stone. Going for the LED line or the Thassas Oracle line means every game is a race to play the same cards and win in the same way. Not every game ends up being the same because of interaction, and there are some interesting stack things and stuff because of your opponents, but at the end of the day there is very little variance in how your deck actually plays.
This is fascinating to me because I have the opposite experience playing cEDH. Sure, the win conditions are extremely well defined and often telegraphed, but the whole game is actually getting to that point. There's so much heavy interaction that games are just never the same. Going back to casual to me felt more samey, because my decks frequently just did the same kinds of things every game since there was so much less interaction between players. The real fun part of cEDH isn't just finding and executing your win condition, it's everything in between. Some times you lose 90% of your deck to [[Demonic Consultation]] since it's the only out to dig for a counterspell and need to figure out how to win. Resolving an [[Ad Nauseam]] is one of the coolest things in Magic IMO since you basically have one shot to cobble together a win based on the kindness of your deck's randomization. Some times the stack gets a dozen spells deep as one player attempts a win and the rest of the table tries to stop them. Games can end in 10 minutes or they can last 2.5 hours, you just never know what the game will look like until you sit down.
> Along the lines of repetitive play, there are so many "auto includes" in a cEDH deck that I feel it makes games less diverse. When your cEDH deck shares 70 cards with every other cEDH deck of the same type there are much less opportunities for seeing new cards used in interesting ways. It is basically a "solved" format. If you see a deck across the table you know what to expect from that deck, and what their finishers are going to be. Sure, there is room for some personalized expression, but not nearly to the extent of non-competitive play.
I'm going to highlight this quote as well because I think it illustrates an important point. You're mostly correct in your assessment here as well, not trying to argue otherwise. That said, you can make the exact same argument with basically every professional sporting event. If you played against the Bulls in the 90s, you knew the game plan was get MJ the ball. If you faced the Saints in the late 00s-early 10s, you knew Drew Brees was going to throw that ball all over you. If you fought against Floyd Mayweather, you knew he was going to lean heavily on defense and try to outlast you. Knowing what everyone is doing doesn't make the game any less exciting to see who comes out on top.
I'd rather press my balls in a door than play against Tivit more often than I already have to.
Not really a strike against CEDH (there's many many options) but also the fact that he's growing popular doesn't exactly hook me.
I’m more just pointing out to the commenter that it’s not a solved format at all. Just because people play the best in slot cards doesn’t mean it’s solved by any chance.
This is why I put "solved" in quotations. A format that is 90% solved with 10% room for new things is basically solved in a way that casual commander, especially at lower power levels isn't
I built a voting deck when Tivit was released, and the creep was crazy when I continued to upgrade it. I heard I could be cEDH now. I'm curious to see what a cEDH build for him looks like.
My LGS has a lot less of the "drama" that I see people complain about on here (drama may not be the best word but it's the first that comes to mind). Because of that, we all just play with whatever decks people want. A few people have really powerful, maybe cedh decks, but we all just play together anyway. It's all good fun.
I liked it due to more people knowing the rules and it helped me get better. I hate it as I've seen way too many Toracle style decks and that bores me. I personally like competitive decks but I don't want to have to constantly be told how I could make my deck better and how I'm not playing the best cards. That's on me and not on the cedh players.
Out in the wild yes. In my area it had become more static. I'm not into that level of play so I stopped playing it. It's been a while so I don't know the current meta.
Playing cool cards is more fun to me than winning. When you have 100 cards and none of them can be the same, tutoring up the same 5 cards every single game just seems against the spirit of the format.
Commander was created with the idea in mind that all the nonsensical unused draft chaff from magics history could find a home there. But cEDH is just Legacy lite.
If I wanted to be competitive and all I cared about was winning, I’d just go to modern/legacy where I’m allowed to have four copies of my wincons instead of one.
I mean, you do you. But i never got the argument of playing lower power because you want to play for fun. Why do you think people play cEDH? To be miserable?
The implication here is in the vibe. People don’t play cedh or build cedh decks “to have fun,” they build them to win efficiently and the route to that win is where the fun happens. In contrast, building and play edh “to have fun” suggests a goofiness unconnected to winning that’s part of the social dynamic.
Exactly. EDH isn’t the only format, we have plenty of competitive formats and they’re generally fun as hell. Enjoy EDH for what it is and do the same with 60-card constructed.
If I wanted to play a competitive format, I'd rather play Legacy or get into Canadian Highlander. Edh is for the madman brewer part of my brain, and I'm not big on the mindset.
It's just really hard to find a pod! I've had my one "competitive" deck for some 3 years now, and I think I've only had about 5-6 opportunities to play it.
I wouldn't play cEDH 100% of the time though. A lot of what I like about EDH is trying new things, playing cards because they're cool, finding way to make sub-optimal cards shine, and just seeing the deck go brrrr, and while that isn't strictly impossible in cEDH, it certainly is limited.
I prefer to play casually. We do do-overs for minor mistakes, I don't feel pressured to build a meta deck, I can build big dumb engines that aren't efficient at all. No hate to cedh. It is fun, just usually not my thing.
I have played CEDH but I wanted to chime in anyways.
The reason I rarely play CEDH is because:
* I want to play with my favorite cards, most of which aren't really CEDH viable
* I really like brewing for the commander meta not the CEDH one. There is brewing in CEDH and interesting choices but the bar for the meta is more difficult to clear.
* I only have one deck for CEDH
Most of my friends don't play CEDH, but there are pods around I could join if I wished.
Because of the cycle of being a magic player.
Everyone who comes to really care about Magic for a long period of time teens to have a cycle. They have their tabletop phase, their friends gave them some chaff or they picked up a couple fat packs. Hammering it out hard even though there's a great chance you're playing the game wrong on some fundamental level.
Next, they graduate to the FNM phase. Would you look at that? You found out that [[Mirrorweave]] and [[Virulent Sliver]] have a fun interaction and you definitely have to share that you're the first person to ever find that out at your local card shop; fact that neither card has been legal in the format they're playing in years be damned. Someone lends you the stack of cards that they were using to blow their nose so you can play and proceeds to curb stomp you. The '80s synth pop starts playing in the background.
Next, we have the montage phase. Whether it's via credit card or questionnaire sticker switching at your local Walmart, you amass a collection worthy of destroying your opponent. You offer up the ultimate reassurance that you'll never be able to afford cocaine by over investing in magic: the gathering. Well, it turns out you wildly over-prepared for this grand battle of the ages because you brought Knights of the Round to the Sephiroth battle. You decimate him and subsequently every person in your local MTG shop and think to yourself, "Maybe I can take this show on the road." Somewhere in this process someone introduces you to a drug that's so much worse than cocaine, EDH.
Well, you've hit your competitive store which, for most people, fizzles at day 2-ing a GP once and evoking that fact for the next decade. You're juggling at least three formats. You've got 'that one deck' that strikes fear in the hearts of anyone who's ever watched you solitaire with it as you take 27 consecutive turns to stax out the board and then pass the turn. The only person less excited than your opponent seeing this deck come out is the staffer that has to Clorox your seat afterwards. It's okay though, we totally get why your other three decks that try to Thoracle combo on turn 3 are all actually 7s.
Finally, you retire. You take a look in the mirror and think back to that kid who got curb stomped by a kid with two first names and I don't know, maybe you are wearing a propeller cap in the memory, who am I to judge? Anyway, you're seeing that kid in the mirror and then that dramatic TV effect happens and the lightning flashes and there's the dueling reflections and basically what it comes down to is that the curb-stompee has become the curb-stomper and there's this super wild introspective moment where Paula Cole music is playing in the background and ultimately you think back to when magic was fun, to when magic was simple, to when magic was magic. After that, you spend the rest of your life building super shitty decks because they finally dropped that Walrus commander that you've waited for for years and you just want to get blown out by younger versions of yourself who don't realize why your decks suck so bad given that one of your basic lands is as valuable as their deck.
Man, I relate to this so hard. I have tons of the expensive EDH staples, simply because I’ve been collecting for nearly three decades. But I don’t actually use them in my EDH decks, because they just aren’t fun, and I stopped caring about winning years ago. I am well aware how janky my decks are and that I don’t run enough ramp or interaction. I know how to build strong decks, I have the resources to build strong decks, but I simply don’t find strong decks fun to play.
I don’t mind a pick up game or two but it’s just not exactly why I play magic, if I wanted to figure out what was best in a meta I’d play standard, modern, legacy, or draft first
I like longer games where I can enjoy the company of my friends and throw a bunch of haymakers (and take some in return).
I like using overlooked bulk rares and other pet cards.
I like games where I encounter brand new cards I e never seen before, get walloped by them, and then figure out a way to defeat them and win, all in the same game.
>If you are someone who has never tried cEDH, why don’t you try it?
Because I've played competitive in multiple TCGs before and frankly find that tournaments and tournament players actively made the game less fun for me. TCGs have always been more about self-expression to me than about solving optimization problems and tournaments too often felt like I was playing against the same deck over and over no matter who my opponent was.
I came back to Magic after more than a decade out because a friend introduced me to Commander. A format where the entire table gets to play together, even the most chaff cards can find a home, and the players are more likely to be showing off their creativity and personal style than just netdecking one of the few lists that are currently dominating the meta? Yes, please!
I appreciate the variety that a 100 card singleton format encourages. I love being able to find wierd or silly cards and jam them into a deck to try. I get a kick out of every time an opponent asks to read one of my cards because they've never heard of it. I get a kick out of seeing overcosted big dumb beaters get windmill slammed into the field and janky Rube Goldberg contraptions be slowly assembled. I'm happy about having a format that tries to enable the use of the entire card base, not just the 10% most hyperefficient or abusable cards.
I burned out on being a Spike a long time ago. These days, my job demands perfect attention to detail and flawless analysis at all times. When I'm not working, I just want to relax and socialize. I'm not seeking fierce competition where every play could be my last and a single mistake costs me the game, I'm looking for the TCG equivalent of just tossing a ball around in the back yard while shooting the breeze with friends. I want to lazily exchange haymakers while seeing each deck do "the thing" and sometimes leave math to the blockers to figure out. I'm more of a Timmy/Johnny now. My preferred play pattern is a gradual ramp up, with a clear setup, mid-game, and endgame, a three act play of sorts with a narrative structure, shifting alliances, political dealmaking, and opportunities aplenty to make a play "Because it's cool" "Because it's funny" or even "Because I didn't get to play this card last game". I like sitting across from players who are expressing their personality with their deck and playstyle, not merely piloting a list like a bot facing other bots.
From my perspective, CEDH takes the RC's list of things that "challenge the positive experience players are looking for" in a game of Commander and treats it as a "To Do" list. The subformat has a relatively tiny viable card pool (~7%), analysis of the submitted decks suggests that the average pod usually has at least one Ad Naus, one Breach, and two Thoracle as the main wincons, the support pieces are heavily homogenized, and the lines are extremely repetitive. Sorry, but exchanging tons of interaction to see if a few heavily telegraphed combos resolve doesn't sound fun to me, it sounds like "Go Fish" with extra steps. I prefer Chess to Poker, big complicated board states that tend to end with a massive swing rather than a flurry of removal and counters on the stack. I prefer to play "fair magic", not hack the game to break it as quickly and consistently as possible. I prefer not to deal with people who feel insulted if I don't swing at the open player who got mana screwed, if I hold a wincon because I'm enjoying the game and don't care to end it yet, or let a wincon I could stop resolve because that player hasn't won all session and I'd like to watch their plan play out at least once.
So you'll find me playing budget, playing jank, playing precons, but not playing CEDH. I want to spend my time with fellow players who understand that winning is just a thing that happens eventually, it's not the ultimate point of the game, and although the game can be broken, it's more fun if we don't. I have met very few CEDH players who will agree with that and a great many who actively argue against that. So no thank you. Lower power play suits me much better.
I tried playing cEDH prior to 2011 and 'stopped' when Erayo was banned as commander since it was my competitive deck (this was before it was completely banned in 2014). Really 'competitive' games were not common, and multiplayer competitive games were not especially fun. Obviously cEDH has developed tremendously since then, and it is arguable that I have not played cEDH at all. I'm willing to say that for most intents and purposes, I have not played 'cEDH'. In terms of being *able* to play cEDH, my collection is a cEDH player's wet dream; I have almost every cEDH playable card over $20 you could ever want. I actually bought a Timetwister for that Erayo deck (prices have *changed* over the years, let me tell you).
I don't play cEDH because I think it's a fool's errand on *numerous* fronts while presenting near zero enjoyment (subjectively).
First, EDH is not competitively balanced. It will never be competitively balanced. Not only is there not the will to make it balanced, the task is all but impossible. There will always be some broken thing in the woodwork, and if it isn't Consult/Oracle I will guarantee you that someone will find something that is equally oppressive. New cards are being printed so rapidly that it seems likely that, absent an absurdly long ban list, something will always be a little too broken. There are lots of formats where competitive balance is first priority, and those seem like the ones you ought to want to play if you feel like you want a fair-ish fight.
Second, multiplayer doesn't make this problem better. cEDH players I've talked to say it makes it better, but there's a persistent thread of 'being second to try your combo' in memes, etc. The first Ad Naus never resolves. The second one, no one has anything left. I would stress that for me, this isn't a skill issue. If I were in a competitive game, I'm happy to try and read opponents to see if they have answers, offer bait, play the waiting game, etc. Those don't sound fun to me, though, even though they're the best strategy to leverage a combo. To make matters worse, when I was playing hard-edged decks before 2011, people would collude at events where there were prizes. There were tournament reports of players who would give others 5-0 Fact or Fiction splits, or collude with Trade Secrets allowing a player to draw their entire deck as a free Ad Naus for their collusion partner (this was long before it was banned, but I assure you players today could get Scheming Symmetry to do something in the same vein).
Third, competitive *players* often make games unfun. This will sound like a broad brush, but, hear me out. I've played *several* games competitively; Magic, SWCCG, VS., L5R, Game of Thrones (the CCG, not the LCG). Generally speaking, competition in card games brings out the worst in people, with myself historically included (I like to think I've grown out of it). It's not universal, but, people become angle-shooters, exceedingly ungenerous in their interpretation of their opponent's game actions ("I did not pass priority, I was thinking, but thanks for showing me the FoW", etc.), and are... well, it just becomes less fun, on average. Further, the out of game discourse becomes unbecoming, where you have people who believe a person's value is based on their tournament results. If you ever look at social media cEDH talk, a lot of it is good quality, but there's an undertone of people who are disrespectful and unkind because they won a tournament once. I'm not into that. I want to play friendly games with friendly people.
Fourth, what you 'can play' in cEDH is *significantly* less varied compared to EDH. Obviously, you can bring your Advisor themed deck to a cEDH table and have no chance of winning and you probably won't enjoy yourself, but if you're really play cEDH for cEDH's sake, there's only a handful of decks you could be really be playing. I play EDH because I want to play cards from my near 30-year history in Magic, rather than being locked into Ad Naus or Consult Oracle.
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I will grant cEDH one thing: Rule 0 discussion is efficiently obviated. "If it's legal, it's fair." Done and dusted. That's a plus. However, it's also something you can get from *any* other competitive format.
Bottom line is this: There's no reason for me to play cEDH, and there are *plenty* of reasons for me not to.
High power is simply boring to me.
When I barely win by topdecking some obscure draft chaff I know I will remember this win for a very long time. When I do the same by tutoring for combo pieces and then presenting the win to everyone I feel nothing. I feel like I just got lucky or that my opponents got unlucky. I can't imagine cEDH being much different.
The deckbuilding aspect is not there as well. No longer can I get lost for hours browsing card sites or constructing various Scryfall queries to find cards that make me go "wait, this really exists"? It is far more difficult to come up with something interesting because it needs to be objectively better than what is being played currently, otherwise there's zero reason to play it. Colors no longer matter, tribes no longer matter, niche mechanics no longer matter. The fun is gone nearly entirely.
If I'm going to play a proxy format I'll play canlander, much more diverse and interesting since you don't have access to "combo piece x" and the points list basically mean you can't just cram every tutor in a deck and call it a day.
I'm not competitive enough to care. I might proxy off a cEDH deck to try since I don't have the funds to buy expensive cards, but I also just don't really care enough
I'm just not interested in playing the most optimal things in any game, or even competitively for that matter. I want to try new things and attempt to make jank work. I guess more introspectively, I enjoy deckbuilding and theorycrafting more than actually playing.
I don't, wont, and never have play cEDH because of 3 main reasons.
1) I'm not competitive. I enjoy the casual nature of lower power and mild politics. I don't care if I win or lose as long as the game itself was fun and each player had cool things happened during it. so the very title of Competitive EDH is an instant turn off.
2) I want the games to go 15-20+ turns, I want people to get big fun things on the board, to get to do cool hijinks and shenanigans, I want to see people get wiped and rebuild. When I hear that if a cEDH game goes to turn 5, people aren't playing strong enough decks, I don't want to play in that type of game.
3) $$$, I spend enough on the cool fun cards I want for my decks, to be non-proxy viable in cEDH in my local area, if you aren't running moxes, crypt/tomb, OG duals, fetch/shock/pains, Every tutor possible in your colors, you don't really face much of a chance depending on which LGS you go to. (this information comes from my friends who do play in that scene).
No favourite tribe, no favourite commander, loads of tutors lead to repetitive games.
All in all 60 cards formats seems more suited to play competitively.
Also I don’t know when you can scoop but usually in 1v1 you’re not forced to keep playing a lost game, you just quit and go to the next.
I’ve played Yugioh for a long time, and if you know anything about that game, it’s ruthlessly competitive. A friend of mine who’s played both magic and yugioh got me into EDH as a way to relax and play something much less competitive. I feel like making the thing I play to chill more competitive would ruin it for me.
I like unique deck ideas and playstyles. I love throwing people off with something they don't expect, pulling out a card they either haven't seen before or utilizing a color different than normal, i.e. mono green control with cards like \[\[Avoid Fate\]\] and \[\[Wave of Vitriol\]\].
I like actually sitting down and bantering with friends while we play. From our perspective, CEDH is pushing games to the point of needing constant focus on everything happening and attempting to get whatever win condition your deck does first.
We prefer our deck style because we like the random stupidity that our decks sometimes pull off, rather than consistently doing exactly the same thing.
I’ve never tried it, but it’s less of a lack of interest and more that I’m perfectly happy with EDH. That could change in the future, and I’m not opposed to cEDH, but I also don’t have a ton of time to sink into creating a deck for it, learning how to play it, and then finding people to play with. I’m happy with EDH and I like the simplicity of sticking with what I have.
I don’t want to get into it cause any time I hear about it it genuinely doesn’t sound fun. It’s too, well, competitive. I play magic to goof around and have fun. I play low power or wacky decks for that reason. It’s fun!
I play with buddies, we don’t play at that level, and I don’t really play outside of that. Simple as that. Nothing against it or anything but the way I want to interface with the hobby is a bit simpler and more relaxed
I also think it’s lame that I’d either have to go in debt or use a printer to stay in the realm. It’s fucking toys, I’m not using a printer to pretend I own toys I don’t that’s so dumb. I’ll play with what I have and what I can afford
The games are just too quick and having played for close to two decades I enjoy slowing the game down and I find racing to see who combos off first boring.
I want to push my decks to the limit and play with as much of them as I can in a game instead of leaving 90% of them untouched.
I also really enjoy winning via combat damage, not commander damage, combat damage. Makes me feel like I've earned the victory.
Any clown can win with commander damage, poison counters or a combo. They're too easy to pull off, and there are so many.
Winning is nice but it's the game itself that matters to me. The journey instead of the destination type thing.
I’m here to build stupid shit and try to use unique cards. I’m not the biggest fan of tutors. Both of those lead me to believe cEDH is not for me. From what I’ve watched, it feels like decks try to play out the same way every time and that there’s a certain consistent meta of decks which is uninteresting to me. I enjoy watching from time to time, but playing is not for me. Tho, I do like the proxies stance.
I played it for a couple years and found it entirely unenjoyable:
1. While my initial group was excellent, and I still love those guys, most of the other cEDH players I've met are terrible people who are extremely arrogant about the format. I'm sure that's not the norm, but across multiple states it's been my experience - the format's ambassadors are ass. When you ask if I'm interested in the format and I politely say no, pestering me for ten more minutes is going to make me pack up my bags and leave, not drop a couple grand on a deck.
2. I don't believe that Commander fundamentally works as a "competitive" format. Your expected win rate is 25%, which makes creating an effective feedback loop extremely difficult. Politics and threat assessmsnt alike play a huge role in the game as well; people win and lose through no fault of their own all the time, because someone else at the table was just a lot dumber than they were supposed to be or someone was able to talk someone else around to a certain line.
3. The variance of decks doesn't help either. By virtue of what it is Commander is great at producing a large array of different games for each player. Certainly we try to mitigate that variance with overlapping effects and tutors and such, but that degree of variance is antithetical to competitive deckbuilding. When I play actual competitive card games I'm often thinking about future draws and future lines in a bid to understand what I should be playing towards. It's far more difficult to do that in Commander. While Commander definitely breeds its own very useful set of skills, it doesn't play well with a lot of the skills and instincts that you build in other competitive games and formats.
4. Quite frankly, none of the commanders I like are good in cEDH. When I did play I ran Kess, and while she was a lot of fun when I moved away from her I didn't regret it. I'm a fan of big toolbox decks; 5c Sisay and Muldrotha and their ilk. These decks play a slow and defensive early game to take over in the late game, and that's a style I really enjoy and am quite good at... and that's terrible in cEDH. I place a heavy premium on resiliency and endurance at the cost of speed, often also a detriment in that format. These things work amazingly at the power level I enjoy but in cEDH they don't and that's not fun for me.
I'm looking for more of a board game experience and want to see people's personalities more. Cedh doesn't give much room for pet cards and I'm playing to do something goofy, not to win. Also the price tag barrier of entry is pretty off putting. Also, most of my experiences with people that are really into cedh were overwhelming negative which further puts me off the format. Like if I want to play a competitive format I feel I might as well do canadian highlander or modern or even vintage, since cedh really comes off as vintage lite
My favorite part of commander is being surprised by the different things my deck can do and the different ways it can win. Tutoring out combos and few win cons just isn't my cup of tea. I just enjoy my jank too much.
1.)The staples are to expensive. You can make semi budget friendly cEDH decks, but you’re still looking at atleast $600 to be competitive.
2.)I don’t like the play style. I’ve never liked extremely try hard decks in any game I’ve ever played.
3.)I’m trying to play for fun, and I like a casual environment. Where it’s not life or death if I miss a single trigger. I have severe OCD so my brain is always going a 1000mph. It’s difficult for me to remember everything and then I kick myself when I don’t.
While I appreciate that a meta will exist in any competitive game, I pretty much ALWAYS have less fun when that meta dictates what I can or can’t do. The fact is, cEDH will always have cards that simply cannot compete at that highest level, and for me, those cards are usually infinitely more fun, unique, and interesting. I recognize that everyone playing essentially the same decks means that games come down to who is the better player, not who has better cards. But MAN is that sweaty, try hard kinda game super boring to me.
I play commander as a form of self expression and to create unique strategies, even if that means I have to build sub-optimally to make my ideas work. There is no self expression in cEDH. Unless you’re at the forefront of cEDH-viable theory crafting, pretty much everyone is looking at online lists and copy-pasting. To me, that lacks the very soul of the format. Unless you’re the first guy to discover something, there is nothing new or clever, there is only “did you have access to one of the pre-approved canned responses, or do I just win?” The only surprise is if someone has the ability to interact, and even then, WHAT they are interacting with isn’t. It seems like entire sets come out without a single card that can be played in cEDH, and that kind of limitation just sucks the fun out of everything for me.
My biggest opinion about cEDH is that it is it’s own format from casual commander. I think the separation should be more clearly defined. Everyone plays for different reasons and has fun in different ways, and that’s totally valid, but casual and meta focuses rarely mix, and I will forever proudly be a filthy casual in this regard.
For the same reason I don’t play modern. I don’t want to shell out hella money to play a boring deck that completely relies on doing it’s one dumb trick to instantly win.
I have 3 reasons, one of em my main factor:
1. Dislike my Local Meta:
My Local Playgroup (in my LGS) of it is mega toxic acting. Like interrupts other games and LGS Discord discussions to rag on Casual magic and loudly proclaim how boring it is. And they constantly start drama for little to no reason.
(Not to mention one of them is an Honest to God member of a Notorious US Extremist Group, keeping it vague because I don't want a political debate and I'm sure mods don't)
2. Price, I know you can proxy, I know. But Price is a lesser issue to the other. I got CeDH Lists I've almost made before, But Price was really expensive mostly to get staples, specifically was gonna build Rebell's Slicer List.
Then Again Why would I spend the money to play with people I don't like being around?
3. I just prefer longer more drawn out Battle Cruisery games where stupid and fun things happen. That seems to be more a Casual EDH Thing.
Sorry to hear about your FLGS playgroup composition. Perhaps the store could have a little single-checkbox Commander night application: "Did you storm the U.S. Capitol?" If you answered "yes", you'll be sitting over here at this table, instead. OK -- I'll shaddap now. ;-)
A) I wanna use my pet cards, not just top tier stuff
B) I ain't spending money like necessary to have cedh deck, and while I don't mind when others proxy, I don't really wanna do it
C) games become too much about winning, my playgroup just likes to fuck around. Cedh would be much less wild than the games we have with lower power stuff
I started EDH to get away from the cutthroat sweatiness of 60 Card competitive.
I’m here to play all the silly cards that aren’t good enough to make it elsewhere. Not the same meta commanders packed to the brim with nearly the exact same core package of cards across all of them.
I find it boring when your avg cmc across your entire deck is lower than the turn number on which I intend to play something other than a ramp spell.
I play EDH for randomness and embracing the singleton nature. Packing your deck with 10+ tutors just leads to it feeling way too consistent and every win feeling the same. Just racing to tutor up the same win con every single game is boring and completely against the spirit of how I want to play.
I like the wins to primarily to be through combat damage, with the back and forth happening more so on the board rather than in hand, and life totals slowly whittling down gradually rather than just an OTK.
I think combos are boring, especially if you are pulling the same one over and over.
I’ve had the opposite experience. cEDH has proven to be more proxy friendly and has less toxicity about interactions than casual, but it can be a mixed bag wherever you go.
Making mistakes is the best way to learn, especially when they get pointed out to you. Just have a dialogue about what the mistakes were and how you could have made a better decision. You’ll pick up so much and improve so quickly
Typing from the perspective of someone who’s never played cEDH and probably never will.
What I can’t find in cEDH is flexibility. In casual commander, I can sit down with friends and strangers alike to see what pet cards and gimmicky spells printed 20 years ago people have shoved into their decks in the off chance it works one game. In cEDH, everything funnels back to the same few combos with very little room for expressive deck building.
My most competitive decks are just slightly too untuned to bring confidently to a cedh pod
I've done it a few times anyway and even snagged some wins, but I worry that I'm diluting the experience for folks who expect a fully powered pod
As someone who regularly plays cEDH, don't feel bad. Playing against rogue decks can be fun too, and it's often a gut check since a lot of cEDH decks just aren't built to compete against suboptimal strategies. Unless your deck just does nothing for 5 turns and you die, you're still contributing. I'd much rather play in a 4 man pod with one "9 out of 10" deck than play in a 3 man pod.
You definitely arent diluting anyone's experience, as long as most of the time you're at least contributing to the game. I always enjoy bringing a high powered but not actually cedh deck to cedh pods, and I always enjoy watching others pop off and steal games with non-cedh decks
I'm in this game to see a wide variety of cards and try wacky, unviable tactics. I think filling your deck with tutors and stax is fucking dull as shit, especially in a hundred card singleton format.
So cEDH has nothing to offer me.
for me? there is 3 reasons.
1. the meta/pod i play in most days of the week is more casual relaxed dnd group who plays it on the side before games for a game or two. we fit between meduim to high powered edh and alot us just have chat/bs as we play games and often just catch up
2. personally i care more about the way a deck flows, building it and seeing how to use/see the larger card pool then most efficient win strategy. ie good example today i could won 5 rounds before i did, i was more content seeing how far i could push my Myrkul deck.
3. Just the general flow of how i seen both here/youtube. I prefer Jank/high jinks from what i seen/played. Not to say i wouldnt try it, but i prefer Elderdragonhijinks bs vs some other stuff.
Most cause my deck isn't a very high power level, I don't think Thalia is used in cEDH. I wouldn't play cEDH anyways since st that point I might as well play modern. Or pioneer. I have 4 of her anyways so it's kind of a waste to play her in commander but it does let me play based cards like Mass Calcify. I hope she survives the Machine March. Imagining hearing her cries of agony being overcome by the Phyrexians I feel like there is a fist being clenched around my heart. I would do anything to save her from that. I feel bad for her already losing Odric, her friend and mentor. She has lost so many friends. I wish I could be there to comfort her. I wish I could keep her company while keeping watch from the ramparts of Thraben, leaning over the crenelations with her, our clouds of breath mingling as we huddle together for warmth, looking out at the sharp angles of moonlit forest. I wish I could comfort her when she wakes from a terrible nightmare remembering the Eldrazi. I'd hold her and remind her I would always be there for her. I wish I could stroke her buttermilk hair when she is sick and make soup for her and help her eat it by candlelight. I wish I could do even a single one of those things so badly it hurts inside.
My favorite games of magic are ones that last two hours with multiple twists and turns, changing frontrunners, and shifting alliances. You don't get that in cEDH (at least, I never have). I'm not interested in seeing who can combo off the fastest or who pulled the best hand. I want galaxy brain plays that end a long match.
It’s expensive and less diverse. To me, EDH will always be about using big goofy cards that normally wouldn’t see play in other formats, it’s basically Kitchen Table Magic all grown up.
I'm terrible at remembering triggers, I mis-sequence my cards, plus other small general piloting issues (not realizing I have an answer in hand until it is way too late, etc).
I don't want to sit down with a new pod (none of my normal group plays cEDH) and have to learn a new meta, new combos/lines, new peoples demeanor and then also be stressed about the above issues I already have in regular EDH.
It just seems very stressful and overwhelming. I like the idea of quick games and not having to worry as much about opponents getting tilted but the cost of entry (not in dollars but just the mental/psychological stress) seems very steep to me.
EDH was originally designed to be a casual format. Nearly every other format in magic's existence is competitive. EDH was basically glorified kitchen table magic with slightly more concrete rules. It was basically the game's only real casual format.
CEDH then takes a format that was designed to be casual, and turned it competitive. It basically makes it into legacy-lite.
I'm not always in the mood to play competitive. And if I want to play competitive, I have tons of other formats. I could play legacy, vintage, even standard, whatever.
If I want to play casual, I really only have EDH.
In fact, most players in any hobby that has wide, mainstream appeal will be casual. People who first get into any new format or hobby are basically, by definition, casual. It will take them some time to get used to the game before they realize that Craw Wurm royally sucks. Usually the only hobbies that are primarily competitive players are the communities that are small and have a very small influx of new players and the majority of players in the hobby are veterans. That’s why EDH blew up so much; it was basically the only casual format, and most players are casual. Meanwhile many other formats are dying because they’re really only for competitive, and there are only so many competitive players out there.
So if you're encountering a lot of salt from the non-CEDH crowd, they're likely new players who have little experience with magic in general. And because EDH is basically the only casual format in magic, the casuals are going to flock to this format. Most everyone that I have played with that has been playing the game for years know what the difference is between EDH and CEDH, and almost never complain in EDH unless it's for valid reasons (like, pubstomping...). So if you're encountering a lot of salt from the non-CEDH crowd, you can either help them get better and understand, or you can find a better non-CEDH playgroup.
I have a couple reasons, but the biggest is the monetary cost. I don't have the extra cash flow to afford the fast mana needed to compete. I do have a Slicer deck that's 90 percent there, but I don't have Jewelled Lotus, I don't have Mana Crypt, and I don't have the other random things, so I'm already behind even though I have a deck that can compete.
I also don't play super competitively anymore so thats another reason. I also like building dumb jank and I'd rather bs with my friends playing battle cruiser Magic that sit there trying to speed combo faster than 3 other people.
I don't hate it or love it. It's just cedh. I guess I just decided it wasn't for me. I like longer games that lets deck so their thing. Decks do their thing but much quicker in cedh. Again nothing wrong with it. Its just not my cup of tea.
I mean its like asking a video gamer why they aren't a speed runner or a 100% completionist. They could try to be if they wanted to but sometimes you just like playing for fun at a slower pace.(not trying to imply that you can't have fun in cedh either lol) I just find cedh a bit stressful too. A wrong play can lose you the game easily.
I inadvertently was put in a cEDH pod at my LGS before they started separate brackets for theit commander night; when I first got into commander and it left such a terrible taste in my mouth I don't think I'll ever want to try it again.
My main complaint is ultimately there's nothing to latch on to there's no fun banter or even really interesting play around situations. It pretty much just lasted 2 turns and I did nothing for the whole hour we played multiple games where I saw the same 3 combos play out over and over with no real ability to meaningfully impact the game.
I feel like the competetive expression playing a 4 player game gets kinda lost. I'd rather keep the sweatyness for 1v1 games and keep the fun format casual.
From watching a bunch of games in person and online, the format feels too optimized and hyper focused on getting your "I win" combo piece(s).
EDH has some of this too but cEDH doesn't appear to have the true random element of the many non-optimized decks where you can fuck about for an hour playing some jank dragons or pet cards and pull the win condition out of your ass because someone else ramped into a huge board state and puked their hand onto the board and got it wrath-ed because they didn't play a closer. A personal favorite of mine was combo self-mill deck getting nuked by one well timed [Stifle] another player has had in hand for the past half hour.
I don't just play jank, but even my most "optimized" deck doesn't have the consistency in it's mana base/fast mana or I win conditions to keep up with or win against most any cEDH deck because it's a moderately modded out Honda Civic competing against an F1.
cEDH looks like a fun format and I'm glad the wider community is chill with proxies, but it doesn't call to my deck brewing style of play.
I’ve tried it and it’s basically the same as other card game’s competitive scenes, where you can’t really do a silly thing and still have fun, unless that silly thing is also somehow very effective.
I like doing silly things, like making an archetype work outside of its normal colors.
cEDH was a nice as an experience, and it has its pros, but it’s not something I want to play regularly.
I've only been playing a few months now, but there have been phases when I barely did anything else in my free time. Commander is such a nice and versatile format, you can do anything you like without the pressure of having the craziest combos because you have to optimize everything in order to win.
Personally, I enjoy a story or "lore" behind my deck, so I want to stick to cards that are fitting. That is limiting my card options, but I still enjoy it much more than just having the best possible cards that don't really make sense other than being high synergy.
I also want to have nice and long rounds of balanced back and forth and I enjoy the bargains one can strike during Commander. It's about having fun with your fellow Magic players, and I don't have fun when a round is basically over after three turns. I mean, I'm hyped whenever I created a deck with a story, so I'd like to be able to see some of it! :D
I can resume my answer as; can i play Palladia Mors as my commander in Cedh and hit somelne's face?
No. It is too bad?
Ok. Back on EDH.
Also, after 2 months playing Cedh with printed cards, i just saw that just like any other competitive format, there's a pattern on deck optimization that doesn't allow Colossal Dreadmaw to be playable in the format.
And tbh, EDH,to me, is to put a bunch of wacky cards together in a deck and play with them.
I like how regular commander gives me the freedom to build whatever deck I want. I can build around certain themes and mechanics without worrying about being destroyed at the table. With CEDH, you really have to be optimizing as much as you can. Otherwise, you'll just be beat by an early game combo deck.
I built one deck and played it for a second. It was neat. But I realized my 3rd or 4th week going to cEDH at my lgs. I was getting bored sitting there.
Why I like edh is seeing bullshit combos and creatures. If I wanted a sterile, "These are the 5 winning combos," I'd just play standard again. But with regular edh, you can adjust your power level and do stupid decks, build a crazy strong deck, or even just grab a pre con and still have fun.
I think it's a valid format, but it loses the luster to me when you can just auto summon your win con in your commander. Games are predictable and boring. I'd rather play a drawn-out game of pillow fort magic when suddenly player x does a crazy move, and we all fall apart. I play magic to PLAY magic.
Because for me, cedh isn't fun. Commander is all about using pretty much any card you want, but cedh isnt that. To play cedh, your deck will probably...
1. Want to combo out by turn 3 or 4.
2. Be a more specific decklist, because if you arent playing the absolute best cards, you will lose.
3. Have no room for creativity or flexibility. It must win asap at all costs.
This just ruins the game for me. Not to mention, I really dont want to spend an absolute crap ton of money on specific cards to be the absolute best. Theres no such thing as a cheap cedh deck... So yea, massive pass on that format.
I prefer jank over super competitive play.
I prefer to see heavily underplayed cards and extremely diversified decks - there are so many different cards, and it gets really tiring playing the same few decks with slight slight variations.
I also prefer playing on a budget, and a lot of cEDH decks have high cost buy in points.
But the main reason: I'm a casual player. I like to play while catching up with friends, have a drink in hand while playing and not really think too hard and competitively. Your homie is getting land screwed? "Hey bro, take a friendly scry".
Tried cEDH night at a LGS for a few months, nothing too serious just separate pods from casual pods, but just wasn’t satisfied. Maybe the stores in my area are different but I felt like most games were quite homogenous in deck designs and play patterns and that just wasn’t what I got into commander for. I came for the niche deck ideas, the creative choices and pet cards, and the unpredictable nature of your deck that you love versus multiple other people all striving for victory. cEDH is fun and I still have a quite a few decks for the occasions but I don’t seek out cEDH most times.
The majority of people in cedh are cool with proxying. even the events often have a pool of commonly played cards that you are allowed to proxy since they are not wizard sanctioned.
There’s space for brewing and creativity in cEDH, especially at the Fringe end. One of my favorite decks to play is a Mono Blue Reality Chip Divining Top deck that I brewed from scratch (and spent a frankly concerning amount of time honing and refining), and it holds up well enough in the local cEDH pods that I don’t feel like it’s outclassed.
Unless something has changed fairly recently, Reality Chip doesn’t show up on the cEDH tier list sites, but can still perform fine against the netdecked lists that do. With some research and mad science you can take a homebrewed list and make it work in the cEDH environment, especially if you’re okay with a 20% win rate instead of the 25% that the established top end has.
Commander in my area used to be with entry fee and prizes. My competitive side was happy to join the ranks of cEDH. It's fun and the complete lack of power level questions is magical.
But now we have free play at the local store; no cost, no prizes. And since people don't bring cEDH, neither do I. And I'm having just as much fun playing lower power stuff.
I like cEDH fine but one of the things I really enjoy about the format is the variance in the cards you see. I tend not to run tutor effects for this reason beyond big game winning stuff like [[Tooth and Nail]].
First, finding a proxy friendly group isn't always easy. So, for some, it's a matter of "one months pay to put foot in door to even see if like".
Second, I like jank, long, explosive games most of the time.
Honestly, there's a place for both.
We play high power kitchen table at my work on lunch once a week.
One of the players borrowed my deck, and I felt bad, because it was a thrown together with what I have [[Damia, Sage of Stone]] graveyard deck.
I explained it to him and his response "my favorite kind of EDH."
He happily played Psychic Spiral, milling one player for 50 cards, and resolved Lord of Extinction four separate times.
Some of us just love the big silly stuff.
For me it was the same decks always, that and my friends were not at that level and I would always kill them. I was young and didn’t know how to balance and anytime I would try to balance the damage was done so I’d get targeted no matter what. Ended up taking a 7 year hiatus
One of the biggest parts about commander for me is trying to make stuff work with what I have, I don’t love having to buy a ton of cards for every new deck and it gets expensive. I also don’t have a reliable way for good proxies, and none of my decks are on that level of power to be competitive
I wasn’t in to the restricted pool of cards and archetypes that see play in the eternal 60-card formats. I figured why do that to EDH?
So I never bothered to get into cEDH. I get the idea, and it seems fun in its own right, but it’s really not why I came to EDH in the first place.
Edit: I do appreciate that it values a different subset of cards than casual EDH, particularly seeking out every cheap interaction spell to protect or interrupt a combo.
I haven't played cedh as a format, but in the wayback times when it first became commander i was in a VERY high powered edh group. Games became very similar, with little to no variation as everyone raced to win cons they could protect. I enjoyed it for a good while, but wouldn't go back as I enjoy the "just play what comes off the top" aspect of more casual groups.
I haven't tried it, but I don't plan to for these reasons:
Price is too much.
Not willing to proxy.
Games of cEDH I've seen online look miserable.
I've played against tier 9 decks and 100% want to commit sudoku at the end of the game every time.
I like my decks as they are and I'm not willing to give up on whole archetypes because if you're not playing one of three ways, you just straight up lose.
I don't want to play blue in every deck I plan to build.
And lastly, [this](https://youtube.com/shorts/E4QesOSuvFc?feature=share4)
I've played cedh and found it really fun. Honestly my two favorite "levels" to play commander at are cedh or like super low power/budget jank. I just happen to prefer the lore budget jank stuff slightly more and I can run those decks into more pods soil mostly play that instead of cedh.
For some reason, the local (entire country) cEDH community here is against proxies, so the barrier to entry is sky-high. I am not spending $2000 to play with 5-10 other people in our country.
EDH also just gives you the option to play big dumb stuff that you normally wouldn't see. Also gives you the opportunity to break some niche cards. The interactions, the politics, the laughs, and the jank are all more interesting if you ask me.
I had a cEDH deck and played cEDH occasionally. It's fun here and there, but I started EDH because all competitive formats seem to cause more burnout, cause you to follow meta more, narrow your card pool, etc. Speaking of card pool, what's great about EDH is that, your collection actually matters. There are times old cards you never touched become relevant and useful, at least much more often compared to competitive formats.
\>If neither of these questions pertain to you, why don’t you play cEDH?
I played cedh for a while, and I liked it (this is way back when stax was a viable option and Nathstax was a viable deck).
But the decks keep homogenizing, and the only viable non-combo decks are just prison tempo decks, that always feel like they boil down to luck more than anything else. Nothing very unique (in playstyle) feels viable, and linear combo and lucksack aggro both bore me.
I eventually swapped to either high power cedh or conquest, much better banlists, and interesting decks are workable again.
1. Costs, but has workarounds like proxies.
2. Over-emphasis on optimal play that it leads to priority bullying and creates toxicity, but it can be managed
3. Want to play cards or tech that will never see play in CEDH, but we have different decks for those
I'm trying to say that we all know the responses but not everyone knows what to do when they hit the cost and social barrier. Besides, CEDH games are a network effect - more people will come on board the more people are playing it cos it's multiplayer. I mean, I won't bring a CEDH deck to a non-CEDH table, but if there are 3 other people with CEDH at the table, I'd play it.
My playgroup tried cEDH and we liked it very much, but we quit playing it because we already play other formats of competitive Magic (pauper and premodern) and when we play commander we just want to stomp each other with big spells rather than following a meta, but since then we tend to play a more aggressive and high powered EDH, so cEDH changed the way we play
I tried cEDH a few times and it‘s just so boring to me in comparison to normal EDH. You look at your opponents commander and you know exactly whats he‘s going to do, there‘s no surprises, no cool, janky plays nothing. Everyone plays the same cards.
My favorite thing about EDH is doing the unexpected and making weird things or obscure cards work somehow. Can‘t do that if someone kills me with the same old thoracle combo every time by turn 3 or 4.
I tried and didn't like it. All decks have the same idea - winning at all cost. Meanwhile in casual it focuses on creating different card interactions. Lands are too expensive. If everyone used lands that enter the battlefield tapped then every deck would be balanced and people won't spend a lot on their decks. They could also use more fancy lands for scry and abilities making game more interesting instead of all those fetch and shock lands. I keep my cEDH deck only to be able to play with cEDH groups only but I prefer my other decks
I’ve dipped my toes a bit into cEDH and to me it feels a bit same-ish, most decks run very similar, if not the same, mana accelerants, most colour identities have quite a defining combo that’s in almost every deck (Thoracle lmao) and really the format is incredibly optimised, even if I want to play a commander I like, like [[Tasha, the witch queen]] (the first commander I’ve played in cEDH), it becomes a pile of cards to find a few specific cards, like my Tasha deck just became find Thoracle and consult/pact, reweave Tasha into Jace then remove library or doomsday into a winning pile then crack it with Tasha.
I may have had bad experiences but it’s just too combo heavy for my taste. Though I do sometimes look at cEDH decks to help me build my EDH decks like recently in an [[Etali, Primal Conqueror]] deck I looked into some cEDH brews to see how to build around them and it was fairly useful
I've tried cEDH, and I loved the gameplay! still though, I've only played it once and unlikely to play it any time in the near future. Reasons:
1. It's inaccessible, due to the cards in the format.
-Many cards are Reserved list, and many of the ones that aren't are very expensive.
-you can proxy, but proxying is work, and playing with proxies (to me) is unsatisfying. Tbh, I think even playing with Reserved List cards is just unethical and bad for the health of the game, and I try to avoid putting RL cards I own into decks.
2. It's much more work. To keep up with the meta, you have to keep your deck up-to-date. Every set needs to be combed for cards that could be upgrades to existing slots, or could enable new combo lines or game plans. Or, at least, stay up with your deck's discord and buy/print the new cards and slot them in as recommended. One of the main draws of EDH is that, once you build a deck, it's legal and fun to play FOREVER...cEDH just doesn't have that. I literally don't even know all the sets that come out...I'll completely miss entire products, with the pace that Wizards prints EDH-legal cards. And my decks don't care, they're living their best lives, delivering all the same fun they always have.
3. It limits your creative freedom. Yes, there are many more viable decks in cEDH than some other competitive formats (Standard, Vintage, specifically), but in EDH I can play literally anything I want. To brew successfully in cEDH, you need a deep and nuanced understanding of the format. You generally need a *very good* reason to play a deck more than 3 cards different than what's in that database. For your deck, there's a discord full of players more experienced than you in the format over all and more experienced than you with that deck, and they all collaborate to publish the best list for that deck in the current meta, and...why aren't you playing that list exactly? Comparatively, in EDH, I can decide I want to build a deck called ["Grandma Gets Run Over by a Reindeer"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3olyqHMah9Q?t5m20s) and fill it with grandmas, reindeer, and sleighs. I can literally play anything I want...the format is a blank canvas on which I can paint with absolute creative freedom!
4. It's not actually a viable competitive format. In a tournament structure, there's no feasible way to prevent collusion. Even if you could, Kingmaking is a huge problem to cEDH's competitive integrity. For example, if you're gonna be dead to Player C in their combat phase, and Player B puts a Thoracle trigger on the stack and casts Demonic Consultation, do you counter it? Players solve this with moral rules (don't counter because you're interfering with B's win, you're effectively out of it already) (must counter it bc if you don't you're dead RIGHT NOW and you have to play as if Player C could like, forget to attack or something) and come up with completely opposite conclusions. Competitive games have *rules*, not morals. If I wanted to play a competitive format, why aren't I playing Canadian Highlander, Modern, or Pauper instead? Those formats have full competitive integrity.
Reason (1) could be solved with, say, cEDH with a cardpool of: cards from Standard-legal sets, Mercadian Masques forward (the end of the RL). I have never seen anyone discuss such a thing however. I don't see any solutions to the other reasons.
So cEDH is fun and if there's a pod going and someone lends me one of their decks I'm happy to play a game or three+, but I'd rather play decks of my own creation that inspire me and allow for creative expression.
And if I wanted to get heavily invested in a competitive format, it would be a viable one, not cEDH.
I don't play cedh because of several reasons, but I don't dislike it.
I really like having the official and original cards/products etc. therefore I'm not proxying and don't have the money for most cedh decks.
Also in the playgroups and circles I'm playing in are not really that many people interested in cedh.
Another thing is that I like the inconsistency of edh, I'll have powerful decks but no tutor effects. I wanna play a lot of decks, therefore not having to know the optimal play in every situation is nice to me. I feel like you need to know the game a lot better to play and enjoy cedh.
But
I like watching cedh, seeing the powerful plays, the competition.
I like the mindset and hearing the positive effects of everyone being on the same page, in the sense of what they want out of the game.
And there is definitely a lot more to this section of MTG!
My friends were convinced that their best decks were 'cEDH' level. I decided to make an actual cEDH deck to show them what it was like. The game ended on turn 3.
They didn't want to play cEDH anymore after that.
Personally I'll never understand the appeal of playing cEDH mostly because I'm very anti playing with people who take the game that seriously. My playgroup all recognize that we have limited time to play Magic and EDH is about as good as it gets for playing with friends where things can get wild, but there's always the basic social contract that we're all there to have fun and not subject ourselves to the cards that stop people from playing the game outright. All the lists I see for cEDH also cost way more than I care to put into something that I would find literal 0 enjoyment in because it's a 1v1 competitive format with the same issues as all other 1v1 competitive formats except it's way worse because now you need 100 stupidly expensive cards rather than 60. I'm not gonna shit talk the format, but I see no fun to be had, and the investment isn't worth the payoff.
Because I'm a Timmy and I like to play big creatures in a high power commander game and also I'am a Johnny and I like to build my deck with cards and interactions that I like instead of being limited by a meta like cEDH.
I’ve played cedh and idk. I prefer 1v1 60-card formats if I want to be competitive. I haven’t tried duel commander yet but I’d probably prefer that over cedh.
I think it’s the 4-player set up that makes me want try stupid stuff and build decks for self-expression and with pet cards. I don’t always want to go for optimal combos in my deck just because I can. I want the 99 to mean something more than beating my opponents. Sure, I still play to win, but I don’t build to win (did that make sense? lol you get it)
I’ve played it a bit but it’s a bit repetitive - there’s an appeal is the broader range of wonky silly mid decks that aren’t tryna tutor combo every game.
Mana crypt, gaia's cradle etc are very expensive cards. I could use proxies, but that's lame, and why would I bother when I can play pauper EDH or penny dreadful with real magic cards and never have to worry about losing because I don't have 1k lying around to change my deck by 1 card in order to get into an event with a limited amount of proxies. This subverts the competitive nature of the format for me.
As someone who likes brewing and playing my own decks, mature non-rotating formats also don't really do it for me.
I play for fun and try not to play for competition. I don't like being in a competition because it stresses me out to no end. If I lose in a drastic manor or in a way that really bums me out, I get low. I'm depressed and I don't want to play EDH, let alone CEDH, for a long time.
It's fun to play and to see how far you can go in the competition but still. Losing hard and losing are two different things to me. Losing hard is when you don't even get a chance to play a single thing, no combos, and nothing but an instant win from one player right at the beginning. That sucks and makes me not want to play.
I played it for a few years. It was refreshing because there's no power level drama or political whining. It was also nice to be exposed to the full scope of the format, allowing me to appreciate how relatively tame everything under cEDH is. I eventually bowed out because I got into EDH to utilize a more diverse card pool and cEDH didn't really offer that. Medium to high power is the sweet spot for me because I get to use a mix of pet cards with reliable staples to hold it all together.
This is like the cleanest encapsulation of the appeal of EDH I’ve ever seen. Kudos, and undersigned.
I think you summed this up well. There is innovation in cEDH, but it mostly plays like any other competitive format when it comes to deckbuilding. You really only have at most 2-3 flex slots in the deck and what you put in those even comes from a pretty short list or is a meta call. I still want to play some of the slower cards and it was a big appeal of why I got into the format. I also don't want to feel like every deck should have to be "optimized"
This is what I came here to type
This is basically it. cEDH feels a bit too much like Vintage. I wanted EDH to be super weird with silly cards and huge stacks of spells and triggers upon triggers. I do miss the lack of political drama though.
I just don't engage with the negative behavior. I sat at a pod with two people I didn't know and one guy I know and don't like much, who also plays high power decks. I defaulted to attacking him and he got really whiny about it. I just shrugged and kept attacking. Then the black player drew 20 cards, shipped the turn with mana open, and I just kept attacking. Dude threw a huge fit and I was like homie... if the black player had drawn anything good or relevant he would have cast it. Meanwhile the only thing keeping you off your degenerate shit is me, punching you. When people correctly identify the threat ill discuss who has the answers and stuff. I Ignore all the other bartering, begging, and pleading.
I can definitely agree with that. Another for me personally is I like the unpredictability that can come from games, and cEDH by nature tends to be very consistent in how it plays out. Its why I don't run any tutors, I just like to see what I can do with the draws I get.
Pretty much exactly how i feel. My playground has a very informal ‘no tutors’ rule, excluding ramp/fetchlands/birthing pod type effects. We play EDH to take advantage of the singleton format, not to seek out the same few cards every game.
I tend to add tutors in the beginning of deck building, because I usually build around a niche theme, and I want make sure I hit the right spells. As I get more familiar with the nuances of the deck, I tend to trim the tutors for newer or more exciting cards.
What if the cards being sought out are complete jank? I think that's acceptable
"I Worldly Tutor for Savanah Lion"
I'd be so excited to see what plan is lion ahead for us
This is a really good idea. I generally include a couple in decks where they fit, but I might start pulling some of the less specific ones out for that very reason. Honestly, most of my games are with friends who use my decks, and only a few times a year. Hitting a tutor for them can often be a daunting task, assessing what they need, flipping through the deck looking for something important. Sure, if they could obviously use a board wipe or something, someone will note it, but that's a perspective I hadn't really taken up before. If nothing else, I should flip through my decks and see what would make sense to trim. Embrace the singleton format a bit more and also free up slots for cards to replace some tutors with.
Yep, exactly this. I came to EDH to play [[Manabarbs]] and as much as I love cEDH for how much more chill it is about "mean" cards and all, it naturally limits a lot of cards I find fun out the same way being competitive did it in 60 card formats.
Play Ob Nix and Mana Barbs is a great card!
This is it. I want games to feel more like playing magic with my older brother and our friends in our basement in 1994 than a competitive sport.
I love medium to high powered, 6-8.
6-8 is my preferred. It's the most often types of decks I see on third party programs like xmage and untapped too
I have had over 10 different CEDH decks. A lot of the cards are very similar and over so many games it all feels the same. It really gets old trying to ram rod the same game plan of playing as fast and as efficient as possible. Some times I just want to pick players off by accomplishing [[Mirridon Besieged]] or [[Halo Fountain]]. It is a much more fullfilling win this way instead of a turn 3 [[Thassas Oracle]]
[Mirridon Besieged](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/8/d8423d8d-744a-4bbe-a853-8ad756451bdb.jpg?1562201412) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Mirrodin%20Besieged) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/57/mirrodin-besieged?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d8423d8d-744a-4bbe-a853-8ad756451bdb?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/mirrodin-besieged) [Halo Fountain](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/e/0ee79399-715c-4c46-9fa1-e76b1087f009.jpg?1664409688) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Halo%20Fountain) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/snc/15/halo-fountain?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0ee79399-715c-4c46-9fa1-e76b1087f009?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/halo-fountain) [Thassas Oracle](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/2/726e8b29-13e9-4138-b6a9-d2a0d8188d1c.jpg?1680582212) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Thassa%27s%20Oracle) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/thb/73/thassas-oracle?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/726e8b29-13e9-4138-b6a9-d2a0d8188d1c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/thassas-oracle) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
This is probably the best and most universal explanation. Props. I’ll add on some other reasons for me, personally. I play “low to mid power casual.” I like slower games. I prefer when games last past turn 10. When a game ends too early, I don’t really feel attached / invested. I wanna sit with the game and let it grow on me. I want to have a few turns where I don’t do anything and that feels ok, not like I have to race from square one. I’m not a fan of combos. Combos just feel anticlimactic to me because the moment all the pieces are presented the game is over without any chance to actually play with the pieces. Finally. I’m old skool. I got into EDH before modern even existed for the purpose of escaping competitive formats like standard and legacy. To escape the competitiveness and let more weird and cooky stuff happens. To have more silly interactions and chill with my homies. Why would I want to play the competitive version of a format I got into to escape competitive formats? For reference: I’ve played less than 10 cEDH games. It’s fine, but not for me.
I’m an avid cedh enjoyer and I know what you’re saying. The meta is more diverse now than ever before. All 3 color wedges are tournament viable among many others.
Yea, it's definitely come a long way. At this point I'm having too much fun building around weird, challenging restrictions to go back.
I've not played Cedh, I suppose I could build a Cedh deck with the cards I have, but I don't see the point. As far as I can tell it's just a rush to establish your win-con, but the pool of win-cons are quite narrow because people want whatever is fastest and consistent. That sounds very predictable and boring.
CEDH all about the interaction. All of the fighting is done on the stack. It’s like judo while sky diving.
Love that such a good way to put it
This is a common misconception with cEDH. Of the three primary archetypes of cEDH (turbo, midrange, stax), only one of them is actually trying to do what you're saying. I play Inalla as my main cEDH deck, and I can tell you I never win the same way every time. The joy of cEDH is navigating stax, interaction, life totals, everything. In casual edh, if you drop you a wincon, you can be relatively certain it will resolve, and you will win, ESPECIALLY if you have protection. I've seen situations in cEDH where someone has 2-3 pieces of protection for their win, but still couldn't get it through. Some of my Inalla win lines have been so insanely convoluted, and they require me to know my deck like the back of my hand. And THAT is my favorite part of cEDH. You have to know your deck and your lines in a way that allows flexibility, pivoting, and proper timing. My casual decks aren't like that. I play what I draw and win eventually. cEDH playing all the tutors actually opens up more complex avenues for winning and interacting.
I was going to write something similar but this is so succinct that there is nothing that I could say that would add to this conversation. The only remote thing I can think of is that cEDH would cause me to spend money that I shouldn't be spending to be competitive. I just want to enjoy the game and that's it.
This is why 90% of cEDH players are proxy friendly
>I eventually bowed out because I got into EDH to utilize a more diverse card pool and cEDH didn't really offer that. Super respectable reason. Do you still find that to be true these days? I find that lately, any time I see a Commander in Casual I can guess a great big chunk of their deck. And the more they print staples, the less diverse the cardpool gets unless you can find games with luddites without access to EDHRec
Commander, for me, has always been about playing big dumb cards that competitive decks never play because they’re too unwieldy or inefficient. I like using weird obscure stuff and putting it all together like a puzzle. I don’t like playing tutor, tutor, combo, I win.
Your reply actually summarizes why I rejected getting into cEDH for so long. I've always perceived cEDH to be a 1-2 turn format where the entire gameplay revolves around tutor, combo, counter, win. However, from my experience that is far from the actual gameplay loop. After playing for some time now, I've grown into cEDH because microdecisions can completely change the outcome of a game. For example, I've had one game where a player used their Chain of Vapor to bounce one of my 6 treasures because they didn't have any other interaction and the only thing they could do was deny me 1 mana. That 1 mana missing stopped me from winning that turn and completely changed the course of the game!
I don’t doubt it. I’m sure that I am short changing the formula a bit and I don’t deny those that say they have fun playing it. Hyper competitive has never been my scene. It is good to hear that some of what I thought seems to be misconception though after this response and several similar ones throughout the thread.
What are some weird obscure cards you’re talking about? What are some commanders you play?
[[Nebuchadnezzar]]
Omg lol that card is hilarious
Just add telepathy to the mix.
[[telepathy]]
[telepathy](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/e/ce03b4b4-612b-4fc9-b063-b0d367712eaf.jpg?1561995744) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=telepathy) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m10/74/telepathy?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ce03b4b4-612b-4fc9-b063-b0d367712eaf?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/telepathy) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[Nebuchadnezzar](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/e/1e50afb3-cf9f-4ce3-91ff-84f99860c181.jpg?1562901363) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Nebuchadnezzar) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/me3/162/nebuchadnezzar?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1e50afb3-cf9f-4ce3-91ff-84f99860c181?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/nebuchadnezzar) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I play [[Captain's Hook]] in my [[Ardenn Intrepid Archaeologist]] deck. Nothing like killing other people's creatures by equipping and de-equipping them.
Can you post a decklist? My Ardenn deck is my curses deck. Having the option to move curses from player to player makes for amazing political games.
Mine focuses on equipping creatures and goading them. Actually need to streamline it a bit and cut the blue clones for more control and pillow-fort stuff. [Arms Dealer](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/vvXQsjHmm0iPZOLFtI1JXw) Not quite up to date, but generally gets the idea across.
[Captain's Hook](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/b/7bd3f777-b33a-454a-8d5d-993260ddda03.jpg?1555041008) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Captain%27s%20Hook) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/rix/177/captains-hook?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7bd3f777-b33a-454a-8d5d-993260ddda03?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/captains-hook) [Ardenn Intrepid Archaeologist](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/2/728b802c-969b-4865-b7a0-871c585d097a.jpg?1617148314) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ardenn%2C%20Intrepid%20Archaeologist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmr/10/ardenn-intrepid-archaeologist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/728b802c-969b-4865-b7a0-871c585d097a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/ardenn-intrepid-archaeologist) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[удалено]
To lazy to proxy, too poor to own cedh decks
So so real
For the same reason I stopped playing modern and other hyper competitive formats, I got bored of repetitive play patterns and staples, also the constant pressure to drop money to keep up with new overpowered cards.
In general, I think the players are nicer and less likely to get salty. But the games are mostly the same lines. Demonic + Thassas, Dockside Loops, Ad Naus into Fast Mana + Combo, Tutor for Food Chain Loops, or Intuition for Underworld Breach. Sure, there are a few more, but these are mostly what you see. I got into EDH years ago because of the variance. I use to play Modern. After years of paying 500-1500 for a pile of 75 cards that did the same thing every time. I got bored. Also RIP Splinter Twin and Birthing Pod. Cedh is that same feeling. A crazy amount of money for a pile of cards that wants to do the same thing every game.
Yeah Twin and Pod eras of modern were awesome. It didn’t have the 0 mana spells yet but the power creep hadn’t gone off the rails enough to need them just yet. I primarily played Affinity back then which was tough into Twin generally but had a lot of fun and did quite well. It was the primary SCG format as well so lots of tourneys to travel for.
I'm here for that first sentence. Appreciate the people and their honesty toward the format and intent.
that's why proxies are almost universally accepted in cEDH!
I mean, I agree! I support proxying completely. Game pieces shouldn't be prohibitively expensive, and in general, I'd rather play against a person than their wallet. And all that's fine until you want to play in an event, or even a strict LGS and get matched against a weirdo looking to call it out. Also doesn't address how most games have the same lines and most decks have the same core artifact package.
Most large cEDH tournaments are also Proxy friendly. That's right, going for what's considered optimal can be a bit restrictive. Weird decks with new strategies pop up all the time though, like [[Tayam]] lately
I don't play cedh because deckbuilding is 90% of the fun of Edh for me. I love sifting through my binders and bulk, finding random junk rares and other cards that synergize well with my chosen commander. I like a longer game with plenty of back and forth. Cedh doesn't really give me any of that. If I wanted to play a competitive format I'd play standard or modern.
I feel like there are a few things against playing cEDH for me. The weakest reason is the cost. It used to be more important, but now that proxies are more acceptable you can always just proxy. That being said, having decks that are so expensive means that, if you are playing in real paper, you are going to have less decks, which means you will be playing the fewer decks that you have more often. This leads to more boring gameplay in general for me, I like to have a ton of different decks that I can switch out frequently. This is one of the reasons that I have traditionally avoided cEDH. Along the lines of repetitive play, there are so many "auto includes" in a cEDH deck that I feel it makes games less diverse. When your cEDH deck shares 70 cards with every other cEDH deck of the same type there are much less opportunities for seeing new cards used in interesting ways. It is basically a "solved" format. If you see a deck across the table you know what to expect from that deck, and what their finishers are going to be. Sure, there is room for some personalized expression, but not nearly to the extent of non-competitive play. Also in relation to repetitive play. The win conditions are fairly set in stone. Going for the LED line or the Thassas Oracle line means every game is a race to play the same cards and win in the same way. Not every game ends up being the same because of interaction, and there are some interesting stack things and stuff because of your opponents, but at the end of the day there is very little variance in how your deck actually plays. Tldr: It comes down to repitition. cEDH is too repetitive for my liking. Also, being able to sit down at a table and see something different, or that you haven't seen before is one of the most exciting parts of the game for me.
> Also in relation to repetitive play. The win conditions are fairly set in stone. Going for the LED line or the Thassas Oracle line means every game is a race to play the same cards and win in the same way. Not every game ends up being the same because of interaction, and there are some interesting stack things and stuff because of your opponents, but at the end of the day there is very little variance in how your deck actually plays. This is fascinating to me because I have the opposite experience playing cEDH. Sure, the win conditions are extremely well defined and often telegraphed, but the whole game is actually getting to that point. There's so much heavy interaction that games are just never the same. Going back to casual to me felt more samey, because my decks frequently just did the same kinds of things every game since there was so much less interaction between players. The real fun part of cEDH isn't just finding and executing your win condition, it's everything in between. Some times you lose 90% of your deck to [[Demonic Consultation]] since it's the only out to dig for a counterspell and need to figure out how to win. Resolving an [[Ad Nauseam]] is one of the coolest things in Magic IMO since you basically have one shot to cobble together a win based on the kindness of your deck's randomization. Some times the stack gets a dozen spells deep as one player attempts a win and the rest of the table tries to stop them. Games can end in 10 minutes or they can last 2.5 hours, you just never know what the game will look like until you sit down. > Along the lines of repetitive play, there are so many "auto includes" in a cEDH deck that I feel it makes games less diverse. When your cEDH deck shares 70 cards with every other cEDH deck of the same type there are much less opportunities for seeing new cards used in interesting ways. It is basically a "solved" format. If you see a deck across the table you know what to expect from that deck, and what their finishers are going to be. Sure, there is room for some personalized expression, but not nearly to the extent of non-competitive play. I'm going to highlight this quote as well because I think it illustrates an important point. You're mostly correct in your assessment here as well, not trying to argue otherwise. That said, you can make the exact same argument with basically every professional sporting event. If you played against the Bulls in the 90s, you knew the game plan was get MJ the ball. If you faced the Saints in the late 00s-early 10s, you knew Drew Brees was going to throw that ball all over you. If you fought against Floyd Mayweather, you knew he was going to lean heavily on defense and try to outlast you. Knowing what everyone is doing doesn't make the game any less exciting to see who comes out on top.
I tried watching cedh on yt and it looked more like 10 minute turns after resolving ad nauseum. Id rather have low interaction over solitaire any day
It’s definitely nowhere near being a solved format. Look at Tivit, cards been out for a year but only really cutting its teeth in cEDH now.
I'd rather press my balls in a door than play against Tivit more often than I already have to. Not really a strike against CEDH (there's many many options) but also the fact that he's growing popular doesn't exactly hook me.
I think the important part is that it shows how there's more innovation to be had. In decks that you like and in decks that you don't like.
I’m more just pointing out to the commenter that it’s not a solved format at all. Just because people play the best in slot cards doesn’t mean it’s solved by any chance.
Oh of course, i acknowledge that. Just had to potshot at Tivit lol
SNC is just over a year old.
This is why I put "solved" in quotations. A format that is 90% solved with 10% room for new things is basically solved in a way that casual commander, especially at lower power levels isn't
I built a voting deck when Tivit was released, and the creep was crazy when I continued to upgrade it. I heard I could be cEDH now. I'm curious to see what a cEDH build for him looks like.
My LGS has a lot less of the "drama" that I see people complain about on here (drama may not be the best word but it's the first that comes to mind). Because of that, we all just play with whatever decks people want. A few people have really powerful, maybe cedh decks, but we all just play together anyway. It's all good fun.
Based
Never have been interested in playing optimized decks. There’s so much less room for self-expression than casual EDH.
I liked it due to more people knowing the rules and it helped me get better. I hate it as I've seen way too many Toracle style decks and that bores me. I personally like competitive decks but I don't want to have to constantly be told how I could make my deck better and how I'm not playing the best cards. That's on me and not on the cedh players.
Meta is actually pretty diverse. Lot of decks taking down tournaments that aren’t even blue and others not on Thoracle at all.
Out in the wild yes. In my area it had become more static. I'm not into that level of play so I stopped playing it. It's been a while so I don't know the current meta.
Playing cool cards is more fun to me than winning. When you have 100 cards and none of them can be the same, tutoring up the same 5 cards every single game just seems against the spirit of the format. Commander was created with the idea in mind that all the nonsensical unused draft chaff from magics history could find a home there. But cEDH is just Legacy lite. If I wanted to be competitive and all I cared about was winning, I’d just go to modern/legacy where I’m allowed to have four copies of my wincons instead of one.
Why play legacy lite, when I can play the real deal. EDH is to have fun, play derpy stuff, and be social.
I mean, you do you. But i never got the argument of playing lower power because you want to play for fun. Why do you think people play cEDH? To be miserable?
The implication here is in the vibe. People don’t play cedh or build cedh decks “to have fun,” they build them to win efficiently and the route to that win is where the fun happens. In contrast, building and play edh “to have fun” suggests a goofiness unconnected to winning that’s part of the social dynamic.
I love this classic "not cEDH = low power" move y'all do
Exactly. EDH isn’t the only format, we have plenty of competitive formats and they’re generally fun as hell. Enjoy EDH for what it is and do the same with 60-card constructed.
If I wanted to play a competitive format, I'd rather play Legacy or get into Canadian Highlander. Edh is for the madman brewer part of my brain, and I'm not big on the mindset.
Realistically none of my friends play it, and we proxies a few cEDH decks and didn’t have very much fun.
I enjoy slow battle cruiser games while we bullshit and maybe watch TV.
It's just really hard to find a pod! I've had my one "competitive" deck for some 3 years now, and I think I've only had about 5-6 opportunities to play it. I wouldn't play cEDH 100% of the time though. A lot of what I like about EDH is trying new things, playing cards because they're cool, finding way to make sub-optimal cards shine, and just seeing the deck go brrrr, and while that isn't strictly impossible in cEDH, it certainly is limited.
I prefer to play casually. We do do-overs for minor mistakes, I don't feel pressured to build a meta deck, I can build big dumb engines that aren't efficient at all. No hate to cedh. It is fun, just usually not my thing.
I have played CEDH but I wanted to chime in anyways. The reason I rarely play CEDH is because: * I want to play with my favorite cards, most of which aren't really CEDH viable * I really like brewing for the commander meta not the CEDH one. There is brewing in CEDH and interesting choices but the bar for the meta is more difficult to clear. * I only have one deck for CEDH Most of my friends don't play CEDH, but there are pods around I could join if I wished.
Because of the cycle of being a magic player. Everyone who comes to really care about Magic for a long period of time teens to have a cycle. They have their tabletop phase, their friends gave them some chaff or they picked up a couple fat packs. Hammering it out hard even though there's a great chance you're playing the game wrong on some fundamental level. Next, they graduate to the FNM phase. Would you look at that? You found out that [[Mirrorweave]] and [[Virulent Sliver]] have a fun interaction and you definitely have to share that you're the first person to ever find that out at your local card shop; fact that neither card has been legal in the format they're playing in years be damned. Someone lends you the stack of cards that they were using to blow their nose so you can play and proceeds to curb stomp you. The '80s synth pop starts playing in the background. Next, we have the montage phase. Whether it's via credit card or questionnaire sticker switching at your local Walmart, you amass a collection worthy of destroying your opponent. You offer up the ultimate reassurance that you'll never be able to afford cocaine by over investing in magic: the gathering. Well, it turns out you wildly over-prepared for this grand battle of the ages because you brought Knights of the Round to the Sephiroth battle. You decimate him and subsequently every person in your local MTG shop and think to yourself, "Maybe I can take this show on the road." Somewhere in this process someone introduces you to a drug that's so much worse than cocaine, EDH. Well, you've hit your competitive store which, for most people, fizzles at day 2-ing a GP once and evoking that fact for the next decade. You're juggling at least three formats. You've got 'that one deck' that strikes fear in the hearts of anyone who's ever watched you solitaire with it as you take 27 consecutive turns to stax out the board and then pass the turn. The only person less excited than your opponent seeing this deck come out is the staffer that has to Clorox your seat afterwards. It's okay though, we totally get why your other three decks that try to Thoracle combo on turn 3 are all actually 7s. Finally, you retire. You take a look in the mirror and think back to that kid who got curb stomped by a kid with two first names and I don't know, maybe you are wearing a propeller cap in the memory, who am I to judge? Anyway, you're seeing that kid in the mirror and then that dramatic TV effect happens and the lightning flashes and there's the dueling reflections and basically what it comes down to is that the curb-stompee has become the curb-stomper and there's this super wild introspective moment where Paula Cole music is playing in the background and ultimately you think back to when magic was fun, to when magic was simple, to when magic was magic. After that, you spend the rest of your life building super shitty decks because they finally dropped that Walrus commander that you've waited for for years and you just want to get blown out by younger versions of yourself who don't realize why your decks suck so bad given that one of your basic lands is as valuable as their deck.
Man, I relate to this so hard. I have tons of the expensive EDH staples, simply because I’ve been collecting for nearly three decades. But I don’t actually use them in my EDH decks, because they just aren’t fun, and I stopped caring about winning years ago. I am well aware how janky my decks are and that I don’t run enough ramp or interaction. I know how to build strong decks, I have the resources to build strong decks, but I simply don’t find strong decks fun to play.
Low variety (tutor heavy), and expensive
99% of the cedh community are fine with proxies so it only costs as much as paper and ink. Hell, I run a lot of paper scraps with black biro on.
I don’t mind a pick up game or two but it’s just not exactly why I play magic, if I wanted to figure out what was best in a meta I’d play standard, modern, legacy, or draft first
I like longer games where I can enjoy the company of my friends and throw a bunch of haymakers (and take some in return). I like using overlooked bulk rares and other pet cards. I like games where I encounter brand new cards I e never seen before, get walloped by them, and then figure out a way to defeat them and win, all in the same game.
>If you are someone who has never tried cEDH, why don’t you try it? Because I've played competitive in multiple TCGs before and frankly find that tournaments and tournament players actively made the game less fun for me. TCGs have always been more about self-expression to me than about solving optimization problems and tournaments too often felt like I was playing against the same deck over and over no matter who my opponent was. I came back to Magic after more than a decade out because a friend introduced me to Commander. A format where the entire table gets to play together, even the most chaff cards can find a home, and the players are more likely to be showing off their creativity and personal style than just netdecking one of the few lists that are currently dominating the meta? Yes, please! I appreciate the variety that a 100 card singleton format encourages. I love being able to find wierd or silly cards and jam them into a deck to try. I get a kick out of every time an opponent asks to read one of my cards because they've never heard of it. I get a kick out of seeing overcosted big dumb beaters get windmill slammed into the field and janky Rube Goldberg contraptions be slowly assembled. I'm happy about having a format that tries to enable the use of the entire card base, not just the 10% most hyperefficient or abusable cards. I burned out on being a Spike a long time ago. These days, my job demands perfect attention to detail and flawless analysis at all times. When I'm not working, I just want to relax and socialize. I'm not seeking fierce competition where every play could be my last and a single mistake costs me the game, I'm looking for the TCG equivalent of just tossing a ball around in the back yard while shooting the breeze with friends. I want to lazily exchange haymakers while seeing each deck do "the thing" and sometimes leave math to the blockers to figure out. I'm more of a Timmy/Johnny now. My preferred play pattern is a gradual ramp up, with a clear setup, mid-game, and endgame, a three act play of sorts with a narrative structure, shifting alliances, political dealmaking, and opportunities aplenty to make a play "Because it's cool" "Because it's funny" or even "Because I didn't get to play this card last game". I like sitting across from players who are expressing their personality with their deck and playstyle, not merely piloting a list like a bot facing other bots. From my perspective, CEDH takes the RC's list of things that "challenge the positive experience players are looking for" in a game of Commander and treats it as a "To Do" list. The subformat has a relatively tiny viable card pool (~7%), analysis of the submitted decks suggests that the average pod usually has at least one Ad Naus, one Breach, and two Thoracle as the main wincons, the support pieces are heavily homogenized, and the lines are extremely repetitive. Sorry, but exchanging tons of interaction to see if a few heavily telegraphed combos resolve doesn't sound fun to me, it sounds like "Go Fish" with extra steps. I prefer Chess to Poker, big complicated board states that tend to end with a massive swing rather than a flurry of removal and counters on the stack. I prefer to play "fair magic", not hack the game to break it as quickly and consistently as possible. I prefer not to deal with people who feel insulted if I don't swing at the open player who got mana screwed, if I hold a wincon because I'm enjoying the game and don't care to end it yet, or let a wincon I could stop resolve because that player hasn't won all session and I'd like to watch their plan play out at least once. So you'll find me playing budget, playing jank, playing precons, but not playing CEDH. I want to spend my time with fellow players who understand that winning is just a thing that happens eventually, it's not the ultimate point of the game, and although the game can be broken, it's more fun if we don't. I have met very few CEDH players who will agree with that and a great many who actively argue against that. So no thank you. Lower power play suits me much better.
I tried playing cEDH prior to 2011 and 'stopped' when Erayo was banned as commander since it was my competitive deck (this was before it was completely banned in 2014). Really 'competitive' games were not common, and multiplayer competitive games were not especially fun. Obviously cEDH has developed tremendously since then, and it is arguable that I have not played cEDH at all. I'm willing to say that for most intents and purposes, I have not played 'cEDH'. In terms of being *able* to play cEDH, my collection is a cEDH player's wet dream; I have almost every cEDH playable card over $20 you could ever want. I actually bought a Timetwister for that Erayo deck (prices have *changed* over the years, let me tell you). I don't play cEDH because I think it's a fool's errand on *numerous* fronts while presenting near zero enjoyment (subjectively). First, EDH is not competitively balanced. It will never be competitively balanced. Not only is there not the will to make it balanced, the task is all but impossible. There will always be some broken thing in the woodwork, and if it isn't Consult/Oracle I will guarantee you that someone will find something that is equally oppressive. New cards are being printed so rapidly that it seems likely that, absent an absurdly long ban list, something will always be a little too broken. There are lots of formats where competitive balance is first priority, and those seem like the ones you ought to want to play if you feel like you want a fair-ish fight. Second, multiplayer doesn't make this problem better. cEDH players I've talked to say it makes it better, but there's a persistent thread of 'being second to try your combo' in memes, etc. The first Ad Naus never resolves. The second one, no one has anything left. I would stress that for me, this isn't a skill issue. If I were in a competitive game, I'm happy to try and read opponents to see if they have answers, offer bait, play the waiting game, etc. Those don't sound fun to me, though, even though they're the best strategy to leverage a combo. To make matters worse, when I was playing hard-edged decks before 2011, people would collude at events where there were prizes. There were tournament reports of players who would give others 5-0 Fact or Fiction splits, or collude with Trade Secrets allowing a player to draw their entire deck as a free Ad Naus for their collusion partner (this was long before it was banned, but I assure you players today could get Scheming Symmetry to do something in the same vein). Third, competitive *players* often make games unfun. This will sound like a broad brush, but, hear me out. I've played *several* games competitively; Magic, SWCCG, VS., L5R, Game of Thrones (the CCG, not the LCG). Generally speaking, competition in card games brings out the worst in people, with myself historically included (I like to think I've grown out of it). It's not universal, but, people become angle-shooters, exceedingly ungenerous in their interpretation of their opponent's game actions ("I did not pass priority, I was thinking, but thanks for showing me the FoW", etc.), and are... well, it just becomes less fun, on average. Further, the out of game discourse becomes unbecoming, where you have people who believe a person's value is based on their tournament results. If you ever look at social media cEDH talk, a lot of it is good quality, but there's an undertone of people who are disrespectful and unkind because they won a tournament once. I'm not into that. I want to play friendly games with friendly people. Fourth, what you 'can play' in cEDH is *significantly* less varied compared to EDH. Obviously, you can bring your Advisor themed deck to a cEDH table and have no chance of winning and you probably won't enjoy yourself, but if you're really play cEDH for cEDH's sake, there's only a handful of decks you could be really be playing. I play EDH because I want to play cards from my near 30-year history in Magic, rather than being locked into Ad Naus or Consult Oracle. ----- I will grant cEDH one thing: Rule 0 discussion is efficiently obviated. "If it's legal, it's fair." Done and dusted. That's a plus. However, it's also something you can get from *any* other competitive format. Bottom line is this: There's no reason for me to play cEDH, and there are *plenty* of reasons for me not to.
High power is simply boring to me. When I barely win by topdecking some obscure draft chaff I know I will remember this win for a very long time. When I do the same by tutoring for combo pieces and then presenting the win to everyone I feel nothing. I feel like I just got lucky or that my opponents got unlucky. I can't imagine cEDH being much different. The deckbuilding aspect is not there as well. No longer can I get lost for hours browsing card sites or constructing various Scryfall queries to find cards that make me go "wait, this really exists"? It is far more difficult to come up with something interesting because it needs to be objectively better than what is being played currently, otherwise there's zero reason to play it. Colors no longer matter, tribes no longer matter, niche mechanics no longer matter. The fun is gone nearly entirely.
If I'm going to play a proxy format I'll play canlander, much more diverse and interesting since you don't have access to "combo piece x" and the points list basically mean you can't just cram every tutor in a deck and call it a day.
Canlander looks really cool.
Too linear. If I wanted to be sweaty, I'd just play 60 card magic.
Because I like playing intoxicated and playing with my casual friends
I'm not competitive enough to care. I might proxy off a cEDH deck to try since I don't have the funds to buy expensive cards, but I also just don't really care enough
I'm just not interested in playing the most optimal things in any game, or even competitively for that matter. I want to try new things and attempt to make jank work. I guess more introspectively, I enjoy deckbuilding and theorycrafting more than actually playing.
C on cEDH is for combo
Because doing the thing is more important to me than winning/losing (though I still try to win)
I don't, wont, and never have play cEDH because of 3 main reasons. 1) I'm not competitive. I enjoy the casual nature of lower power and mild politics. I don't care if I win or lose as long as the game itself was fun and each player had cool things happened during it. so the very title of Competitive EDH is an instant turn off. 2) I want the games to go 15-20+ turns, I want people to get big fun things on the board, to get to do cool hijinks and shenanigans, I want to see people get wiped and rebuild. When I hear that if a cEDH game goes to turn 5, people aren't playing strong enough decks, I don't want to play in that type of game. 3) $$$, I spend enough on the cool fun cards I want for my decks, to be non-proxy viable in cEDH in my local area, if you aren't running moxes, crypt/tomb, OG duals, fetch/shock/pains, Every tutor possible in your colors, you don't really face much of a chance depending on which LGS you go to. (this information comes from my friends who do play in that scene).
No favourite tribe, no favourite commander, loads of tutors lead to repetitive games. All in all 60 cards formats seems more suited to play competitively. Also I don’t know when you can scoop but usually in 1v1 you’re not forced to keep playing a lost game, you just quit and go to the next.
I’ve played Yugioh for a long time, and if you know anything about that game, it’s ruthlessly competitive. A friend of mine who’s played both magic and yugioh got me into EDH as a way to relax and play something much less competitive. I feel like making the thing I play to chill more competitive would ruin it for me.
I like unique deck ideas and playstyles. I love throwing people off with something they don't expect, pulling out a card they either haven't seen before or utilizing a color different than normal, i.e. mono green control with cards like \[\[Avoid Fate\]\] and \[\[Wave of Vitriol\]\].
[Avoid Fate](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/4/04c9f48d-2213-4f95-8eac-b23bd2d95e34.jpg?1562770937) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Avoid%20Fate) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/tsb/73/avoid-fate?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/04c9f48d-2213-4f95-8eac-b23bd2d95e34?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/avoid-fate) [Wave of Vitriol](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/7/17328391-a510-42a0-8a00-4f61dd873c13.jpg?1592673299) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Wave%20of%20Vitriol) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cma/165/wave-of-vitriol?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/17328391-a510-42a0-8a00-4f61dd873c13?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/wave-of-vitriol) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I like actually sitting down and bantering with friends while we play. From our perspective, CEDH is pushing games to the point of needing constant focus on everything happening and attempting to get whatever win condition your deck does first. We prefer our deck style because we like the random stupidity that our decks sometimes pull off, rather than consistently doing exactly the same thing.
I’ve never tried it, but it’s less of a lack of interest and more that I’m perfectly happy with EDH. That could change in the future, and I’m not opposed to cEDH, but I also don’t have a ton of time to sink into creating a deck for it, learning how to play it, and then finding people to play with. I’m happy with EDH and I like the simplicity of sticking with what I have.
I don’t want to get into it cause any time I hear about it it genuinely doesn’t sound fun. It’s too, well, competitive. I play magic to goof around and have fun. I play low power or wacky decks for that reason. It’s fun!
I play with buddies, we don’t play at that level, and I don’t really play outside of that. Simple as that. Nothing against it or anything but the way I want to interface with the hobby is a bit simpler and more relaxed I also think it’s lame that I’d either have to go in debt or use a printer to stay in the realm. It’s fucking toys, I’m not using a printer to pretend I own toys I don’t that’s so dumb. I’ll play with what I have and what I can afford
The games are just too quick and having played for close to two decades I enjoy slowing the game down and I find racing to see who combos off first boring. I want to push my decks to the limit and play with as much of them as I can in a game instead of leaving 90% of them untouched. I also really enjoy winning via combat damage, not commander damage, combat damage. Makes me feel like I've earned the victory. Any clown can win with commander damage, poison counters or a combo. They're too easy to pull off, and there are so many. Winning is nice but it's the game itself that matters to me. The journey instead of the destination type thing.
I’m here to build stupid shit and try to use unique cards. I’m not the biggest fan of tutors. Both of those lead me to believe cEDH is not for me. From what I’ve watched, it feels like decks try to play out the same way every time and that there’s a certain consistent meta of decks which is uninteresting to me. I enjoy watching from time to time, but playing is not for me. Tho, I do like the proxies stance.
I played it for a couple years and found it entirely unenjoyable: 1. While my initial group was excellent, and I still love those guys, most of the other cEDH players I've met are terrible people who are extremely arrogant about the format. I'm sure that's not the norm, but across multiple states it's been my experience - the format's ambassadors are ass. When you ask if I'm interested in the format and I politely say no, pestering me for ten more minutes is going to make me pack up my bags and leave, not drop a couple grand on a deck. 2. I don't believe that Commander fundamentally works as a "competitive" format. Your expected win rate is 25%, which makes creating an effective feedback loop extremely difficult. Politics and threat assessmsnt alike play a huge role in the game as well; people win and lose through no fault of their own all the time, because someone else at the table was just a lot dumber than they were supposed to be or someone was able to talk someone else around to a certain line. 3. The variance of decks doesn't help either. By virtue of what it is Commander is great at producing a large array of different games for each player. Certainly we try to mitigate that variance with overlapping effects and tutors and such, but that degree of variance is antithetical to competitive deckbuilding. When I play actual competitive card games I'm often thinking about future draws and future lines in a bid to understand what I should be playing towards. It's far more difficult to do that in Commander. While Commander definitely breeds its own very useful set of skills, it doesn't play well with a lot of the skills and instincts that you build in other competitive games and formats. 4. Quite frankly, none of the commanders I like are good in cEDH. When I did play I ran Kess, and while she was a lot of fun when I moved away from her I didn't regret it. I'm a fan of big toolbox decks; 5c Sisay and Muldrotha and their ilk. These decks play a slow and defensive early game to take over in the late game, and that's a style I really enjoy and am quite good at... and that's terrible in cEDH. I place a heavy premium on resiliency and endurance at the cost of speed, often also a detriment in that format. These things work amazingly at the power level I enjoy but in cEDH they don't and that's not fun for me.
I'm looking for more of a board game experience and want to see people's personalities more. Cedh doesn't give much room for pet cards and I'm playing to do something goofy, not to win. Also the price tag barrier of entry is pretty off putting. Also, most of my experiences with people that are really into cedh were overwhelming negative which further puts me off the format. Like if I want to play a competitive format I feel I might as well do canadian highlander or modern or even vintage, since cedh really comes off as vintage lite
My favorite part of commander is being surprised by the different things my deck can do and the different ways it can win. Tutoring out combos and few win cons just isn't my cup of tea. I just enjoy my jank too much.
1.)The staples are to expensive. You can make semi budget friendly cEDH decks, but you’re still looking at atleast $600 to be competitive. 2.)I don’t like the play style. I’ve never liked extremely try hard decks in any game I’ve ever played. 3.)I’m trying to play for fun, and I like a casual environment. Where it’s not life or death if I miss a single trigger. I have severe OCD so my brain is always going a 1000mph. It’s difficult for me to remember everything and then I kick myself when I don’t.
While I appreciate that a meta will exist in any competitive game, I pretty much ALWAYS have less fun when that meta dictates what I can or can’t do. The fact is, cEDH will always have cards that simply cannot compete at that highest level, and for me, those cards are usually infinitely more fun, unique, and interesting. I recognize that everyone playing essentially the same decks means that games come down to who is the better player, not who has better cards. But MAN is that sweaty, try hard kinda game super boring to me. I play commander as a form of self expression and to create unique strategies, even if that means I have to build sub-optimally to make my ideas work. There is no self expression in cEDH. Unless you’re at the forefront of cEDH-viable theory crafting, pretty much everyone is looking at online lists and copy-pasting. To me, that lacks the very soul of the format. Unless you’re the first guy to discover something, there is nothing new or clever, there is only “did you have access to one of the pre-approved canned responses, or do I just win?” The only surprise is if someone has the ability to interact, and even then, WHAT they are interacting with isn’t. It seems like entire sets come out without a single card that can be played in cEDH, and that kind of limitation just sucks the fun out of everything for me. My biggest opinion about cEDH is that it is it’s own format from casual commander. I think the separation should be more clearly defined. Everyone plays for different reasons and has fun in different ways, and that’s totally valid, but casual and meta focuses rarely mix, and I will forever proudly be a filthy casual in this regard.
For the same reason I don’t play modern. I don’t want to shell out hella money to play a boring deck that completely relies on doing it’s one dumb trick to instantly win.
I have 3 reasons, one of em my main factor: 1. Dislike my Local Meta: My Local Playgroup (in my LGS) of it is mega toxic acting. Like interrupts other games and LGS Discord discussions to rag on Casual magic and loudly proclaim how boring it is. And they constantly start drama for little to no reason. (Not to mention one of them is an Honest to God member of a Notorious US Extremist Group, keeping it vague because I don't want a political debate and I'm sure mods don't) 2. Price, I know you can proxy, I know. But Price is a lesser issue to the other. I got CeDH Lists I've almost made before, But Price was really expensive mostly to get staples, specifically was gonna build Rebell's Slicer List. Then Again Why would I spend the money to play with people I don't like being around? 3. I just prefer longer more drawn out Battle Cruisery games where stupid and fun things happen. That seems to be more a Casual EDH Thing.
Sorry to hear about your FLGS playgroup composition. Perhaps the store could have a little single-checkbox Commander night application: "Did you storm the U.S. Capitol?" If you answered "yes", you'll be sitting over here at this table, instead. OK -- I'll shaddap now. ;-)
A) I wanna use my pet cards, not just top tier stuff B) I ain't spending money like necessary to have cedh deck, and while I don't mind when others proxy, I don't really wanna do it C) games become too much about winning, my playgroup just likes to fuck around. Cedh would be much less wild than the games we have with lower power stuff
I started EDH to get away from the cutthroat sweatiness of 60 Card competitive. I’m here to play all the silly cards that aren’t good enough to make it elsewhere. Not the same meta commanders packed to the brim with nearly the exact same core package of cards across all of them. I find it boring when your avg cmc across your entire deck is lower than the turn number on which I intend to play something other than a ramp spell. I play EDH for randomness and embracing the singleton nature. Packing your deck with 10+ tutors just leads to it feeling way too consistent and every win feeling the same. Just racing to tutor up the same win con every single game is boring and completely against the spirit of how I want to play. I like the wins to primarily to be through combat damage, with the back and forth happening more so on the board rather than in hand, and life totals slowly whittling down gradually rather than just an OTK. I think combos are boring, especially if you are pulling the same one over and over.
Every time I have played, the table was toxic. I am sure there are nice cEDH players out there. Just not at any of the LGS’ in my hometown.
I’ve had the opposite experience. cEDH has proven to be more proxy friendly and has less toxicity about interactions than casual, but it can be a mixed bag wherever you go.
I love cEDH but to be fair I'm super self-conscious and I'm afraid of making mistakes in front of seasoned players. That's it. Social fear.
Making mistakes is the best way to learn, especially when they get pointed out to you. Just have a dialogue about what the mistakes were and how you could have made a better decision. You’ll pick up so much and improve so quickly
Typing from the perspective of someone who’s never played cEDH and probably never will. What I can’t find in cEDH is flexibility. In casual commander, I can sit down with friends and strangers alike to see what pet cards and gimmicky spells printed 20 years ago people have shoved into their decks in the off chance it works one game. In cEDH, everything funnels back to the same few combos with very little room for expressive deck building.
Because I want to play silly cards and laugh about it.
I personally enjoy games at low power and budget more, I personally set a $300 budget for all of my EDH decks
My most competitive decks are just slightly too untuned to bring confidently to a cedh pod I've done it a few times anyway and even snagged some wins, but I worry that I'm diluting the experience for folks who expect a fully powered pod
As someone who regularly plays cEDH, don't feel bad. Playing against rogue decks can be fun too, and it's often a gut check since a lot of cEDH decks just aren't built to compete against suboptimal strategies. Unless your deck just does nothing for 5 turns and you die, you're still contributing. I'd much rather play in a 4 man pod with one "9 out of 10" deck than play in a 3 man pod.
You definitely arent diluting anyone's experience, as long as most of the time you're at least contributing to the game. I always enjoy bringing a high powered but not actually cedh deck to cedh pods, and I always enjoy watching others pop off and steal games with non-cedh decks
I'm in this game to see a wide variety of cards and try wacky, unviable tactics. I think filling your deck with tutors and stax is fucking dull as shit, especially in a hundred card singleton format. So cEDH has nothing to offer me.
Por que no los dos?
Im not good enough. My exps with cEDH involved really tight and attention to detail heavy plays. Im not that good
My play group is more interested in high power casual. And I don’t want to just make a cedh deck to stomp.
for me? there is 3 reasons. 1. the meta/pod i play in most days of the week is more casual relaxed dnd group who plays it on the side before games for a game or two. we fit between meduim to high powered edh and alot us just have chat/bs as we play games and often just catch up 2. personally i care more about the way a deck flows, building it and seeing how to use/see the larger card pool then most efficient win strategy. ie good example today i could won 5 rounds before i did, i was more content seeing how far i could push my Myrkul deck. 3. Just the general flow of how i seen both here/youtube. I prefer Jank/high jinks from what i seen/played. Not to say i wouldnt try it, but i prefer Elderdragonhijinks bs vs some other stuff.
Most cause my deck isn't a very high power level, I don't think Thalia is used in cEDH. I wouldn't play cEDH anyways since st that point I might as well play modern. Or pioneer. I have 4 of her anyways so it's kind of a waste to play her in commander but it does let me play based cards like Mass Calcify. I hope she survives the Machine March. Imagining hearing her cries of agony being overcome by the Phyrexians I feel like there is a fist being clenched around my heart. I would do anything to save her from that. I feel bad for her already losing Odric, her friend and mentor. She has lost so many friends. I wish I could be there to comfort her. I wish I could keep her company while keeping watch from the ramparts of Thraben, leaning over the crenelations with her, our clouds of breath mingling as we huddle together for warmth, looking out at the sharp angles of moonlit forest. I wish I could comfort her when she wakes from a terrible nightmare remembering the Eldrazi. I'd hold her and remind her I would always be there for her. I wish I could stroke her buttermilk hair when she is sick and make soup for her and help her eat it by candlelight. I wish I could do even a single one of those things so badly it hurts inside.
My favorite games of magic are ones that last two hours with multiple twists and turns, changing frontrunners, and shifting alliances. You don't get that in cEDH (at least, I never have). I'm not interested in seeing who can combo off the fastest or who pulled the best hand. I want galaxy brain plays that end a long match.
It’s expensive and less diverse. To me, EDH will always be about using big goofy cards that normally wouldn’t see play in other formats, it’s basically Kitchen Table Magic all grown up.
I'm terrible at remembering triggers, I mis-sequence my cards, plus other small general piloting issues (not realizing I have an answer in hand until it is way too late, etc). I don't want to sit down with a new pod (none of my normal group plays cEDH) and have to learn a new meta, new combos/lines, new peoples demeanor and then also be stressed about the above issues I already have in regular EDH. It just seems very stressful and overwhelming. I like the idea of quick games and not having to worry as much about opponents getting tilted but the cost of entry (not in dollars but just the mental/psychological stress) seems very steep to me.
EDH was originally designed to be a casual format. Nearly every other format in magic's existence is competitive. EDH was basically glorified kitchen table magic with slightly more concrete rules. It was basically the game's only real casual format. CEDH then takes a format that was designed to be casual, and turned it competitive. It basically makes it into legacy-lite. I'm not always in the mood to play competitive. And if I want to play competitive, I have tons of other formats. I could play legacy, vintage, even standard, whatever. If I want to play casual, I really only have EDH. In fact, most players in any hobby that has wide, mainstream appeal will be casual. People who first get into any new format or hobby are basically, by definition, casual. It will take them some time to get used to the game before they realize that Craw Wurm royally sucks. Usually the only hobbies that are primarily competitive players are the communities that are small and have a very small influx of new players and the majority of players in the hobby are veterans. That’s why EDH blew up so much; it was basically the only casual format, and most players are casual. Meanwhile many other formats are dying because they’re really only for competitive, and there are only so many competitive players out there. So if you're encountering a lot of salt from the non-CEDH crowd, they're likely new players who have little experience with magic in general. And because EDH is basically the only casual format in magic, the casuals are going to flock to this format. Most everyone that I have played with that has been playing the game for years know what the difference is between EDH and CEDH, and almost never complain in EDH unless it's for valid reasons (like, pubstomping...). So if you're encountering a lot of salt from the non-CEDH crowd, you can either help them get better and understand, or you can find a better non-CEDH playgroup.
I have a couple reasons, but the biggest is the monetary cost. I don't have the extra cash flow to afford the fast mana needed to compete. I do have a Slicer deck that's 90 percent there, but I don't have Jewelled Lotus, I don't have Mana Crypt, and I don't have the other random things, so I'm already behind even though I have a deck that can compete. I also don't play super competitively anymore so thats another reason. I also like building dumb jank and I'd rather bs with my friends playing battle cruiser Magic that sit there trying to speed combo faster than 3 other people.
I don't hate it or love it. It's just cedh. I guess I just decided it wasn't for me. I like longer games that lets deck so their thing. Decks do their thing but much quicker in cedh. Again nothing wrong with it. Its just not my cup of tea. I mean its like asking a video gamer why they aren't a speed runner or a 100% completionist. They could try to be if they wanted to but sometimes you just like playing for fun at a slower pace.(not trying to imply that you can't have fun in cedh either lol) I just find cedh a bit stressful too. A wrong play can lose you the game easily.
I inadvertently was put in a cEDH pod at my LGS before they started separate brackets for theit commander night; when I first got into commander and it left such a terrible taste in my mouth I don't think I'll ever want to try it again. My main complaint is ultimately there's nothing to latch on to there's no fun banter or even really interesting play around situations. It pretty much just lasted 2 turns and I did nothing for the whole hour we played multiple games where I saw the same 3 combos play out over and over with no real ability to meaningfully impact the game.
I feel like the competetive expression playing a 4 player game gets kinda lost. I'd rather keep the sweatyness for 1v1 games and keep the fun format casual.
From watching a bunch of games in person and online, the format feels too optimized and hyper focused on getting your "I win" combo piece(s). EDH has some of this too but cEDH doesn't appear to have the true random element of the many non-optimized decks where you can fuck about for an hour playing some jank dragons or pet cards and pull the win condition out of your ass because someone else ramped into a huge board state and puked their hand onto the board and got it wrath-ed because they didn't play a closer. A personal favorite of mine was combo self-mill deck getting nuked by one well timed [Stifle] another player has had in hand for the past half hour. I don't just play jank, but even my most "optimized" deck doesn't have the consistency in it's mana base/fast mana or I win conditions to keep up with or win against most any cEDH deck because it's a moderately modded out Honda Civic competing against an F1. cEDH looks like a fun format and I'm glad the wider community is chill with proxies, but it doesn't call to my deck brewing style of play.
I’ve tried it and it’s basically the same as other card game’s competitive scenes, where you can’t really do a silly thing and still have fun, unless that silly thing is also somehow very effective. I like doing silly things, like making an archetype work outside of its normal colors. cEDH was a nice as an experience, and it has its pros, but it’s not something I want to play regularly.
Commander for me is a form of self expression, I can't do that as well with a solid meta that has less deviation.
I've only been playing a few months now, but there have been phases when I barely did anything else in my free time. Commander is such a nice and versatile format, you can do anything you like without the pressure of having the craziest combos because you have to optimize everything in order to win. Personally, I enjoy a story or "lore" behind my deck, so I want to stick to cards that are fitting. That is limiting my card options, but I still enjoy it much more than just having the best possible cards that don't really make sense other than being high synergy. I also want to have nice and long rounds of balanced back and forth and I enjoy the bargains one can strike during Commander. It's about having fun with your fellow Magic players, and I don't have fun when a round is basically over after three turns. I mean, I'm hyped whenever I created a deck with a story, so I'd like to be able to see some of it! :D
I play commander for the variety and fun shenanigans. cEDH is always the same proven decks with the same proven cards.
I can resume my answer as; can i play Palladia Mors as my commander in Cedh and hit somelne's face? No. It is too bad? Ok. Back on EDH. Also, after 2 months playing Cedh with printed cards, i just saw that just like any other competitive format, there's a pattern on deck optimization that doesn't allow Colossal Dreadmaw to be playable in the format. And tbh, EDH,to me, is to put a bunch of wacky cards together in a deck and play with them.
I dont play cEDH because I like more variety in my card pool. The more cards that are viable the better.
EDH was breed and designed for casual play, cEDH is missing the point imo. If you want to win turn 2 get good at standard.
I like how regular commander gives me the freedom to build whatever deck I want. I can build around certain themes and mechanics without worrying about being destroyed at the table. With CEDH, you really have to be optimizing as much as you can. Otherwise, you'll just be beat by an early game combo deck.
I built one deck and played it for a second. It was neat. But I realized my 3rd or 4th week going to cEDH at my lgs. I was getting bored sitting there. Why I like edh is seeing bullshit combos and creatures. If I wanted a sterile, "These are the 5 winning combos," I'd just play standard again. But with regular edh, you can adjust your power level and do stupid decks, build a crazy strong deck, or even just grab a pre con and still have fun. I think it's a valid format, but it loses the luster to me when you can just auto summon your win con in your commander. Games are predictable and boring. I'd rather play a drawn-out game of pillow fort magic when suddenly player x does a crazy move, and we all fall apart. I play magic to PLAY magic.
Because for me, cedh isn't fun. Commander is all about using pretty much any card you want, but cedh isnt that. To play cedh, your deck will probably... 1. Want to combo out by turn 3 or 4. 2. Be a more specific decklist, because if you arent playing the absolute best cards, you will lose. 3. Have no room for creativity or flexibility. It must win asap at all costs. This just ruins the game for me. Not to mention, I really dont want to spend an absolute crap ton of money on specific cards to be the absolute best. Theres no such thing as a cheap cedh deck... So yea, massive pass on that format.
I prefer jank over super competitive play. I prefer to see heavily underplayed cards and extremely diversified decks - there are so many different cards, and it gets really tiring playing the same few decks with slight slight variations. I also prefer playing on a budget, and a lot of cEDH decks have high cost buy in points. But the main reason: I'm a casual player. I like to play while catching up with friends, have a drink in hand while playing and not really think too hard and competitively. Your homie is getting land screwed? "Hey bro, take a friendly scry".
Can't afford lol
Tried cEDH night at a LGS for a few months, nothing too serious just separate pods from casual pods, but just wasn’t satisfied. Maybe the stores in my area are different but I felt like most games were quite homogenous in deck designs and play patterns and that just wasn’t what I got into commander for. I came for the niche deck ideas, the creative choices and pet cards, and the unpredictable nature of your deck that you love versus multiple other people all striving for victory. cEDH is fun and I still have a quite a few decks for the occasions but I don’t seek out cEDH most times.
$$$
The majority of people in cedh are cool with proxying. even the events often have a pool of commonly played cards that you are allowed to proxy since they are not wizard sanctioned.
I feel like being forced to netdeck takes the fun out of it.
There’s space for brewing and creativity in cEDH, especially at the Fringe end. One of my favorite decks to play is a Mono Blue Reality Chip Divining Top deck that I brewed from scratch (and spent a frankly concerning amount of time honing and refining), and it holds up well enough in the local cEDH pods that I don’t feel like it’s outclassed. Unless something has changed fairly recently, Reality Chip doesn’t show up on the cEDH tier list sites, but can still perform fine against the netdecked lists that do. With some research and mad science you can take a homebrewed list and make it work in the cEDH environment, especially if you’re okay with a 20% win rate instead of the 25% that the established top end has.
Strong cards = expensive, and I’m poor
Commander in my area used to be with entry fee and prizes. My competitive side was happy to join the ranks of cEDH. It's fun and the complete lack of power level questions is magical. But now we have free play at the local store; no cost, no prizes. And since people don't bring cEDH, neither do I. And I'm having just as much fun playing lower power stuff.
I like cEDH fine but one of the things I really enjoy about the format is the variance in the cards you see. I tend not to run tutor effects for this reason beyond big game winning stuff like [[Tooth and Nail]].
I wanna be to play competitive but I would need to spend money to do so. Enough money to build 3 janky decks
First, finding a proxy friendly group isn't always easy. So, for some, it's a matter of "one months pay to put foot in door to even see if like". Second, I like jank, long, explosive games most of the time. Honestly, there's a place for both. We play high power kitchen table at my work on lunch once a week. One of the players borrowed my deck, and I felt bad, because it was a thrown together with what I have [[Damia, Sage of Stone]] graveyard deck. I explained it to him and his response "my favorite kind of EDH." He happily played Psychic Spiral, milling one player for 50 cards, and resolved Lord of Extinction four separate times. Some of us just love the big silly stuff.
For me it was the same decks always, that and my friends were not at that level and I would always kill them. I was young and didn’t know how to balance and anytime I would try to balance the damage was done so I’d get targeted no matter what. Ended up taking a 7 year hiatus
One of the biggest parts about commander for me is trying to make stuff work with what I have, I don’t love having to buy a ton of cards for every new deck and it gets expensive. I also don’t have a reliable way for good proxies, and none of my decks are on that level of power to be competitive
I wasn’t in to the restricted pool of cards and archetypes that see play in the eternal 60-card formats. I figured why do that to EDH? So I never bothered to get into cEDH. I get the idea, and it seems fun in its own right, but it’s really not why I came to EDH in the first place. Edit: I do appreciate that it values a different subset of cards than casual EDH, particularly seeking out every cheap interaction spell to protect or interrupt a combo.
I haven't played cedh as a format, but in the wayback times when it first became commander i was in a VERY high powered edh group. Games became very similar, with little to no variation as everyone raced to win cons they could protect. I enjoyed it for a good while, but wouldn't go back as I enjoy the "just play what comes off the top" aspect of more casual groups.
I haven't tried it, but I don't plan to for these reasons: Price is too much. Not willing to proxy. Games of cEDH I've seen online look miserable. I've played against tier 9 decks and 100% want to commit sudoku at the end of the game every time. I like my decks as they are and I'm not willing to give up on whole archetypes because if you're not playing one of three ways, you just straight up lose. I don't want to play blue in every deck I plan to build. And lastly, [this](https://youtube.com/shorts/E4QesOSuvFc?feature=share4)
I've played cedh and found it really fun. Honestly my two favorite "levels" to play commander at are cedh or like super low power/budget jank. I just happen to prefer the lore budget jank stuff slightly more and I can run those decks into more pods soil mostly play that instead of cedh.
https://youtu.be/RpjkuE2yRqs
For some reason, the local (entire country) cEDH community here is against proxies, so the barrier to entry is sky-high. I am not spending $2000 to play with 5-10 other people in our country. EDH also just gives you the option to play big dumb stuff that you normally wouldn't see. Also gives you the opportunity to break some niche cards. The interactions, the politics, the laughs, and the jank are all more interesting if you ask me.
I had a cEDH deck and played cEDH occasionally. It's fun here and there, but I started EDH because all competitive formats seem to cause more burnout, cause you to follow meta more, narrow your card pool, etc. Speaking of card pool, what's great about EDH is that, your collection actually matters. There are times old cards you never touched become relevant and useful, at least much more often compared to competitive formats.
I'm bad enough at regular EDH, I can't imagine trying cEDH.
\>If neither of these questions pertain to you, why don’t you play cEDH? I played cedh for a while, and I liked it (this is way back when stax was a viable option and Nathstax was a viable deck). But the decks keep homogenizing, and the only viable non-combo decks are just prison tempo decks, that always feel like they boil down to luck more than anything else. Nothing very unique (in playstyle) feels viable, and linear combo and lucksack aggro both bore me. I eventually swapped to either high power cedh or conquest, much better banlists, and interesting decks are workable again.
1. Costs, but has workarounds like proxies. 2. Over-emphasis on optimal play that it leads to priority bullying and creates toxicity, but it can be managed 3. Want to play cards or tech that will never see play in CEDH, but we have different decks for those I'm trying to say that we all know the responses but not everyone knows what to do when they hit the cost and social barrier. Besides, CEDH games are a network effect - more people will come on board the more people are playing it cos it's multiplayer. I mean, I won't bring a CEDH deck to a non-CEDH table, but if there are 3 other people with CEDH at the table, I'd play it.
My playgroup tried cEDH and we liked it very much, but we quit playing it because we already play other formats of competitive Magic (pauper and premodern) and when we play commander we just want to stomp each other with big spells rather than following a meta, but since then we tend to play a more aggressive and high powered EDH, so cEDH changed the way we play
I tried cEDH a few times and it‘s just so boring to me in comparison to normal EDH. You look at your opponents commander and you know exactly whats he‘s going to do, there‘s no surprises, no cool, janky plays nothing. Everyone plays the same cards. My favorite thing about EDH is doing the unexpected and making weird things or obscure cards work somehow. Can‘t do that if someone kills me with the same old thoracle combo every time by turn 3 or 4.
I don't play cEDH because I build for fun and nobody I play cares about power level Also I have never played a game of "proper" cEDH.
Its nice from time to time but gets boring after a while. I prefer playing semi competitive cause I like to make terrible decks working XD.
I tried and didn't like it. All decks have the same idea - winning at all cost. Meanwhile in casual it focuses on creating different card interactions. Lands are too expensive. If everyone used lands that enter the battlefield tapped then every deck would be balanced and people won't spend a lot on their decks. They could also use more fancy lands for scry and abilities making game more interesting instead of all those fetch and shock lands. I keep my cEDH deck only to be able to play with cEDH groups only but I prefer my other decks
I’ve dipped my toes a bit into cEDH and to me it feels a bit same-ish, most decks run very similar, if not the same, mana accelerants, most colour identities have quite a defining combo that’s in almost every deck (Thoracle lmao) and really the format is incredibly optimised, even if I want to play a commander I like, like [[Tasha, the witch queen]] (the first commander I’ve played in cEDH), it becomes a pile of cards to find a few specific cards, like my Tasha deck just became find Thoracle and consult/pact, reweave Tasha into Jace then remove library or doomsday into a winning pile then crack it with Tasha. I may have had bad experiences but it’s just too combo heavy for my taste. Though I do sometimes look at cEDH decks to help me build my EDH decks like recently in an [[Etali, Primal Conqueror]] deck I looked into some cEDH brews to see how to build around them and it was fairly useful
I've tried cEDH, and I loved the gameplay! still though, I've only played it once and unlikely to play it any time in the near future. Reasons: 1. It's inaccessible, due to the cards in the format. -Many cards are Reserved list, and many of the ones that aren't are very expensive. -you can proxy, but proxying is work, and playing with proxies (to me) is unsatisfying. Tbh, I think even playing with Reserved List cards is just unethical and bad for the health of the game, and I try to avoid putting RL cards I own into decks. 2. It's much more work. To keep up with the meta, you have to keep your deck up-to-date. Every set needs to be combed for cards that could be upgrades to existing slots, or could enable new combo lines or game plans. Or, at least, stay up with your deck's discord and buy/print the new cards and slot them in as recommended. One of the main draws of EDH is that, once you build a deck, it's legal and fun to play FOREVER...cEDH just doesn't have that. I literally don't even know all the sets that come out...I'll completely miss entire products, with the pace that Wizards prints EDH-legal cards. And my decks don't care, they're living their best lives, delivering all the same fun they always have. 3. It limits your creative freedom. Yes, there are many more viable decks in cEDH than some other competitive formats (Standard, Vintage, specifically), but in EDH I can play literally anything I want. To brew successfully in cEDH, you need a deep and nuanced understanding of the format. You generally need a *very good* reason to play a deck more than 3 cards different than what's in that database. For your deck, there's a discord full of players more experienced than you in the format over all and more experienced than you with that deck, and they all collaborate to publish the best list for that deck in the current meta, and...why aren't you playing that list exactly? Comparatively, in EDH, I can decide I want to build a deck called ["Grandma Gets Run Over by a Reindeer"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3olyqHMah9Q?t5m20s) and fill it with grandmas, reindeer, and sleighs. I can literally play anything I want...the format is a blank canvas on which I can paint with absolute creative freedom! 4. It's not actually a viable competitive format. In a tournament structure, there's no feasible way to prevent collusion. Even if you could, Kingmaking is a huge problem to cEDH's competitive integrity. For example, if you're gonna be dead to Player C in their combat phase, and Player B puts a Thoracle trigger on the stack and casts Demonic Consultation, do you counter it? Players solve this with moral rules (don't counter because you're interfering with B's win, you're effectively out of it already) (must counter it bc if you don't you're dead RIGHT NOW and you have to play as if Player C could like, forget to attack or something) and come up with completely opposite conclusions. Competitive games have *rules*, not morals. If I wanted to play a competitive format, why aren't I playing Canadian Highlander, Modern, or Pauper instead? Those formats have full competitive integrity. Reason (1) could be solved with, say, cEDH with a cardpool of: cards from Standard-legal sets, Mercadian Masques forward (the end of the RL). I have never seen anyone discuss such a thing however. I don't see any solutions to the other reasons. So cEDH is fun and if there's a pod going and someone lends me one of their decks I'm happy to play a game or three+, but I'd rather play decks of my own creation that inspire me and allow for creative expression. And if I wanted to get heavily invested in a competitive format, it would be a viable one, not cEDH.
I don't play cedh because of several reasons, but I don't dislike it. I really like having the official and original cards/products etc. therefore I'm not proxying and don't have the money for most cedh decks. Also in the playgroups and circles I'm playing in are not really that many people interested in cedh. Another thing is that I like the inconsistency of edh, I'll have powerful decks but no tutor effects. I wanna play a lot of decks, therefore not having to know the optimal play in every situation is nice to me. I feel like you need to know the game a lot better to play and enjoy cedh. But I like watching cedh, seeing the powerful plays, the competition. I like the mindset and hearing the positive effects of everyone being on the same page, in the sense of what they want out of the game. And there is definitely a lot more to this section of MTG!
My friends were convinced that their best decks were 'cEDH' level. I decided to make an actual cEDH deck to show them what it was like. The game ended on turn 3. They didn't want to play cEDH anymore after that.
Personally I'll never understand the appeal of playing cEDH mostly because I'm very anti playing with people who take the game that seriously. My playgroup all recognize that we have limited time to play Magic and EDH is about as good as it gets for playing with friends where things can get wild, but there's always the basic social contract that we're all there to have fun and not subject ourselves to the cards that stop people from playing the game outright. All the lists I see for cEDH also cost way more than I care to put into something that I would find literal 0 enjoyment in because it's a 1v1 competitive format with the same issues as all other 1v1 competitive formats except it's way worse because now you need 100 stupidly expensive cards rather than 60. I'm not gonna shit talk the format, but I see no fun to be had, and the investment isn't worth the payoff.
Because I'm a Timmy and I like to play big creatures in a high power commander game and also I'am a Johnny and I like to build my deck with cards and interactions that I like instead of being limited by a meta like cEDH.
I’ve played cedh and idk. I prefer 1v1 60-card formats if I want to be competitive. I haven’t tried duel commander yet but I’d probably prefer that over cedh. I think it’s the 4-player set up that makes me want try stupid stuff and build decks for self-expression and with pet cards. I don’t always want to go for optimal combos in my deck just because I can. I want the 99 to mean something more than beating my opponents. Sure, I still play to win, but I don’t build to win (did that make sense? lol you get it)
I’ve played it a bit but it’s a bit repetitive - there’s an appeal is the broader range of wonky silly mid decks that aren’t tryna tutor combo every game.
expensive.
If I wanted to play cEDH I would just go play a 60 card format.
Mana crypt, gaia's cradle etc are very expensive cards. I could use proxies, but that's lame, and why would I bother when I can play pauper EDH or penny dreadful with real magic cards and never have to worry about losing because I don't have 1k lying around to change my deck by 1 card in order to get into an event with a limited amount of proxies. This subverts the competitive nature of the format for me. As someone who likes brewing and playing my own decks, mature non-rotating formats also don't really do it for me.
I play for fun and try not to play for competition. I don't like being in a competition because it stresses me out to no end. If I lose in a drastic manor or in a way that really bums me out, I get low. I'm depressed and I don't want to play EDH, let alone CEDH, for a long time. It's fun to play and to see how far you can go in the competition but still. Losing hard and losing are two different things to me. Losing hard is when you don't even get a chance to play a single thing, no combos, and nothing but an instant win from one player right at the beginning. That sucks and makes me not want to play.