Balancing Fun & Competitiveness
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Aug. 12, 2017, 10:40 a.m. by Dalektable
Commander is a strange format.
Don't get me wrong, EDH is tied with draft for my favorite way to play magic. The crazy board states, social interactions and games it creates are my favorite in magic. However, commander is strange in that for everyone it is different. This both makes the format incredibly diverse and fun, but also difficult. I am referring specifically today to the power levels of decks, and discrepancies between decks and playgroups. Today, as I analyze this issue within the format I will be using two decks of mine to compare and contrast this idea.
My favorite commander deck of mine is Arcanis the Omnipotent, it is a classic mono blue control deck packed with counterspells, card draw and removal. The second, Azami, I was considering building using my Arcanis deck as a base. By changing roughly twenty cards in the deck lists (read: roughly 1/3 of the non-land cards in the deck) I believe i transformed my favorite deck from a fun, powerful deck into an oppressive powerhouse. Let me explain.
TARDIS | Arcanis, the Omnipotent
Here is my current deck list. The goal of this deck is to one-for-one opponents with countermagic and removal, but I should end up on top because of the amount of card advantage this deck creates. My commander allows me to draw three cards, which is insane and can get out of hand quickly with other synergies in the deck. The win condition is two fold: firstly, the fun way. I run control magic effects & cards that allows me to use my opponents own cards against them. Examples of this are Roil Elemental, Mind's Dilation. The second way is the quick, easy and competitive way. The deck runs one infinite combo in Mind Over Matter combined with Arcanis to draw the entire deck and untap any permanent you want. Then, you can win through many different ways ( Laboratory Maniac, Psychosis Crawler, Blue Sun's Zenith ). My playgroup is fine with infinite combos, the reason I believe this one is okay here is because it isnt my main win condition. I also don't tutor for it, reducing the consistency. For other players in the game, this makes the deck seem fair and balanced even though my win percentage with this deck is ridiculously high I don't get hate for it.
Now, lets talk about this monster. I thought it would be fun to turn my mono blue control deck into a wizard tribal deck, with lots of combo potential. The problem? Its too good. Sure, if I was playing in tournaments I would bring this deck with absolutely no reservations. On paper, this deck looks super fun to me. I was so excited for this deck, wizard tribal fun stuff with crazy whacky combos with Paradox Engine and friends? Sign me up. But, in actual gameplay, I found this deck to be downright oppressive. It is way too consistent, way too fast and honestly too powerful for a non-tournament environment. Could I build the deck down, and remove the combos? Yes, but then I am stifling the deck incredibly and I don't believe in doing that. I believe my Arcanis deck is powerful, while not being hindered by my exclusion of any certain cards. Azami, on the other hand, feels so combo-like that playing without them doesn't feel like the same deck. I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy playing the deck immensely, the problem though? Everyone else.
This is where the balancing act comes in. You have to find the right balance between having a strong, effective strategy while not absolutely pummeling your opponents into the ground every game. If you want to do that, maybe go play some mono red in standard but commander is a fun format. For myself, I have trouble with this. I am super competitive, I love winning and I admit many games my goal is more to win than "have fun". But I think as spikes, in EDH there is a way for us to do that while still having fun & allowing everyone else to have fun.
Many people have advocated for this before, but I am a believer in the 75% deck building concept for commander. For those unfamiliar, it basically means that your deck is tuned to roughly 75% of the power level it could have. By doing this, you have a deck that functions powerfully, consistently and does what it is supposed to do while remaining fun and not oppressive. Not having a fully tuned deck can also be an advantage, because you won't be targeted every game yet still have an extremely powerful deck. My issue with Azami is I passed this threshold, to probably about 90% tuned. For most playgroups, and most people I would be playing against, I believe this to be too powerful to be a fun deck to be played against.
Today, my PSA is to be careful of the power level to which you build your EDH decks. Every playgroup is different, and this won't be the case for everyone, but I think this covers a vast array of players in the format. From one spike to another, make good decks...just not too good ;)
DrukenReaps says... #3
I'm a Johnny, Combo Player but I've run into the same issue because I had one play group where I didn't really care if they whined about my combos. I moved onto a play group where I like everyone and now it isn't as fun if I pull out a silly combo early in the game. I much prefer for the games to go long so I can actually have fun with my friends. It has been interesting finding combos that take longer while still being decent enough to win once in awhile.
Profet93 I found pillow fort decks can be powerful while not giving your opponents much to whine about. You can play stupid stuff like Palisade Giant + Darksteel Plate and then go about your business of setting things up. No one really seems to complain even though it is effectively the same as a proactive control strategy. Why counter things when they cant hurt you anyways? A more competitive version of the same idea is aikido where you use funny things like Comeuppance.
August 12, 2017 2:38 p.m.
Winterblast says... #4
Personally I absolutely dislike decks which just "happen to draw a combo" without it being their actual goal. For example a midrange aggro deck that sometimes randomly pulls a Tooth and Nail out of the ass to win. I hate these kind of combo wins because it absolutely takes no skill to pull that off and I don't know if it's important to disrupt that player or ignore him, because it's unpredictable how close a "combo" win already is. Usually I will bash those decks as soon as possible because their threat can't be predicted accurately.
A real combo deck on the other hand needs a good player as well. Last week a friend lent his arcum dagsson deck to a new player on another table and told him what he has to search for, once he can use arcum dagsson. That guy asked multiple times during the game and then managed to lose against a casual mono g and ub decks with paradox engine on the table.
A bad player can ram a tier 1 deck into the ground, that's for sure. On tbe otber hand I don't think that a 75% build in the hands of a good player will be bad if played against weak decks with weak players piloting them. I would rather explain the tuned deck to other players and show themin detail how it works and where it can be disrupted, than downgrade a good deck.
August 13, 2017 11:12 a.m.
Karns_Pyromancer says... #5
With some decks, this is harder to gauge. Take Nath of the Gilt-Leaf for example. He's expensive, but adds removal to elfball decks while cutting down on the speed. He also runs disruption.
I picked him up in a trade & spent about $50 building his deck from scratch with a bunch of dorks and discard, like Oppression/Creeping Dread. (I think the most expensive AND powerful card is Genesis Wave.)
The issue? It's not a fun deck. It's wildly consistent, wildly fast, super strong & unbelievably resilient. It's not tuned. It's not running more than four tutors, all of which are used to flat out end the game or gain card advantage.
How fast is it? T3 Nath almost every game. Last time I played it, I cast Dark Deal with Birchlore Rangers & Nath onboard, then Genesis Wave for X=10, then cause my opponents to discard their hands again then pass. The game was over next turn.
This is not something I tried to do when building the deck, but Nath is a subtle monster.
Profet93 says... #2
Honestly I've been having the same issues in my playgroup/meta recently. They are casual/semi-competitive and I bring combo and control to the table as that's my favorite way to play magic. They bitch at not only me, but other players if they do something "REMOTELY" unfair. I've hated the idea of tuning down my decks because people are incompetent at deck building, don't have the funds, or just like playing horrible decks. That being said, wouldn't it be better just to play a separate deck all together (Ex: I am getting the Cat Precon which I will then upgrade eventually). That way, the play group has no real reason to whine. Funny because they are all in their 20s or 30s yet they act like 10 year olds.
August 12, 2017 12:43 p.m.