The Commander format has one giant problem to solve. Do you know what it is? Today’s article will touch on the major strengths of the game’s most rapidly growing format and will attempt to address some of its “growing pains.” As many of you might know, I am a regular participant in the Twitterverse and tend to use Twitter to keep my proverbial fingers on the pulse of the game.

Twitter is like a bellwether. You can measure the community’s love or disdain for certain aspects of Magic by following a diverse group of folks who post Tweet about the game. Do you want to know if folks are happy with the health of Standard? Hit up the timeline and read the Tweets posted following a big event. There are tons of players currently complaining about the power level of the Caw-Blade decks. A few weeks go by, and there are calls to ban Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Stoneforge Mystic, and even Sword of Feast and Famine. Legacy seems to create a great deal of buzz. Nearly all of the Legacy posts tend to be positive. Not many calls for bannings and a few “that-a-boys” for tournament winners. When a new deck breaks through at a big tournament or popular deck-builder wants to promote some new tech, you can read about it on Twitter first.

Twitter can help you make predictions about which decks might be popular, what cards to pick up, and which cards you might want to dump before the glamor wears away. Several staff writers participate and post regularly about their articles or weigh in on the popular debates and questions of the day. Generally, there is a group of folks willing to talk about your specific interests at just about any hour.

This makes Twitter a great tool for understanding and predicting trends related to Commander. For example, I follow a couple of popular Magic personalities who happen to work for Wizards of the Coast. Ken Nagle posted a cool link to the Undead Radio (June 13, 2011) cast featuring Aaron Forsythe, Ryan Miller, and Mark Globus (all Wizards employees involved in the new Commander product). The cast brings you play-by-play action from a four-player Commander game using the new Commander preconstructed decks.

I learned that the Counterpunch deck was the deck that fit my play style, the “Vow” cycle of cards is political and powerful in multiplayer, and Kaalia of the Vast is a total house. When you listen to the ’cast, you will note that many players are doing powerful things. One player kicks the game off with a turn-one Sol Ring. On multiple occasions, Aaron Forsythe destroys opposing Commanders, and there’s a turn where Kaalia attacks, dropping Akroma, Angel of Fury into the game. However, you typically don’t hear players protesting the power level of the plays, complaining about being the target of certain effects or problematic abilities. Rather, you might hear folks claim “I deserved that one,” or “I think the next attacks are coming my way [chuckle].”

The podcast begins with a few sage comments from Aaron. He notes that there are players at Wizards who have a great orientation for the format. They understand that with the incredible card pool, players could reasonably achieve turn-four kills and “broken” victories if they wanted. But rather than trying to break the format, the players enjoy creating fantastic game states and memorable moments for the enjoyment of the group. They have established a culture that rewards interaction and fun.

In the Beginning

Commander stands apart from other formats in that its genesis did not occur in the hallowed halls of research and development. Until recent releases, cards were not intentionally designed for the format. In fact, the format developed as a sort of grassroots styles of play. Players created the game, negotiated the rules, and achieved something impressive.

I enjoy Standard, Legacy, and the occasional bout of Extended. Limited games are always interesting, and I love how the hard work on the part of Wizards pays off, but there is a certain beauty in the grandeur and simplicity of Commander. You create these giant decks, no two cards in the deck are the same, and the fun comes in the variance and diversity. I love the way that you can play cards that have been broken, banned, and forgotten, next to goofy cards that have never seen a day of Constructed play.

Cards like Demonic Tutor and Sol Ring drew me to the format, but cards like Decree of Pain and Maelstrom Nexus kept me playing long after that initial fascination with the powerful, efficient cards faded. I am certain that there is a diverse readership following the Commander content on this site. GatheringMagic has worked hard to promote the casual side of the game. From Robby Rothe articles and Vorthos Wednesdays to Abe Sargent’s CasualNation series, there are a myriad of casual options. However, there is definitely room for competitive players. We have regular content breaking down the best Standard and Legacy decks, offering sharp financial advice for the value traders, and articles that fall somewhere in between.

It can be both humorous and frustrating to write for such a diverse crowd. Sometimes you write an article that has the casual crowd steaming or the competitive crowd snoozing, while others hit a sweet balance that offends neither crowd. I don’t imagine that today’s article will be one of the latter.

Cultural Revelations

I took a hiatus from playing in our local league today because I ran into a problem that creeps up in league play from time to time. My biggest pet peeve is not broken cards, broken combos, infinite turns, or the ilk. While those things can be problematic if they are abused in a single setting, I had a bigger problem with a cultural misstep that our league has been taking. We grew from twelve to sixteen regular players fifteen weeks ago in our first league at this given store to a booming regular twenty-six to thirty players. Most of the new folks come into the league in one of two modes: (1) They have played before, have sweet cards, have a honed deck, and need to adjust to our style, or (2) They are nearly new to Magic, only have some Standard cards or older cards from the time when they historically ventured into the game, but have no polished deck. Both new types of players typically make a graceful entrance into the format. Commander can accommodate a very diverse crowd. You have players rocking the original FBB dual lands next to a deck full of basics and nickel uncommons. Most of the time, the differences sort out in the wash.

You don’t have to have the most expensive cards or hard-to-locate singles to experience success in Commander. Most of the time, the socialization and playing the game provides the reward. However, league play and tournament action can muddy those waters. We have one player who clearly aims to claim total victory every time he plays. He is a good guy and well-liked, but packs decks that usually leave people groaning. Two weeks back, he claimed the maximum amount of headhunter points (kills) using his Hive Mind/Five-Pact deck. The deck creates kill conditions in which Hive Mind hits the board and players are forced to pay for the Pact cycle of cards with colors of mana that they typically cannot generate. It is clever, but is often unloved.

While it might seem like a power gamer or Spike personality might hurt a league, it can be argued that the league’s culture can be the real problem. Let me spin this cautionary tale. It turns out that the Hive Mind player had actually been flipping a very different hundred-card deck in the weeks prior to the week in which he won. Lower power levels accompanied a casual orientation, and the player had sported some decks that aimed to drop a ton of artifacts and enchantments. So what made casual orientation corrode to the point of playing the Hive Mind combo deck?

It turns out that our league is beginning to have a serious problem with culture. Rather than enjoying games and complimenting players on their deck designs, strong plays, and creativity, greater than 40% of the players complain about most powerful cards, creatures, strong boards, and impressive game states. Some players do this because they hate losing. Some players do this as a political tactic to draw attention away from their own devious plans or in order to draw heat to an opponent. It turns out, all of the complaining and grief sours the play experiences. It is hard to come up with a four-player pod at this store that doesn’t contain one to two griefers. These players complain when you hit a turn-one Sol Ring, make snide comments about early use of Sensei's Divining Top or dropping an impressive creature on turn six. They don’t like any of the creative or powerful things that you do, but almost certainly play the same cards and intend to do similar things.

Griefers Ruin Culture

It has been stated that Commander is a format where all of your opponents’ plays are broken or busted, while all of the decks that you play and actions you take are quite clever. This sucks. The most annoying thing in the world (you might want to jot this down somewhere) is for someone who is unfun or doing unfun things to determine that you are not being fun. This applies in both life and cards. From the old man yelling at kids to get off of his lawn, to societal rules banning awesome endeavors, right down to someone calling your card or deck out for being no fun, the principle applies.

Imagine a really fun playgroup where people compliment your powerful plays. Rather than providing an infinite amount of grief and lodging complaints about your every move, consider a game in which you laugh, have a great time, and focus on the cool things that cards can do. I play in a couple of locations during the week. One location is full of grief. It can be such a downer and so unenjoyable to be berated, judged, and griefed that I sometimes skip out. In my other playgroup, the decks are probably a little more “hard-core,” but the culture is correct. Players laugh and have a great time. You might get poisoned out of the game on turn nine or killed with some amazing synergies, but you are going to keep going back for more. The same players don’t cry and complain when you disrupt their strong plays, but they do demonstrate great sportsmanship when winning and losing.

Commander has so many strengths. The card pool and possibilities are near-endless. The multiplayer aspect of the game makes the time you spend playing really fun and helps build strong connections. However, you have to do a serious culture check when the play atmosphere sours and degenerates into a grief-fest. The next time you are about to complain about an opponent’s strategy, consider complimenting him instead. If you are really annoyed at losing a casual game of Magic, you might need to do some soul-searching about why you sat down to play. The busted decks and powerful strategies will come and go. Players will socially deconstruct abusive play through deck-building changes, tech cards, and choices about whom to attack, but we don’t have to devolve our playgroups into whiny, negative social monitors to have a good time. In fact, it results in quite the opposite.

Having logged over a thousand games of Commander, I can say with certainty that your negative, overregulating groups will fail and dissolve. This is a little preachy, but try to be the positive example, the role model who demonstrates sportsmanship and a great casual orientation. It just might result in the greatest format you’ve ever played and the best Magic experience you’ve ever had.