Commander Tournament Idea

Commander (EDH) forum

Posted on May 6, 2016, 4:23 p.m. by capriom85

At game day I got paired against a player who was fairly chatty. So the conversation took an EDH turn and she told me her boyfriend and herself are currently building EDH decks for each of the 10 Ravnica guilds, each of the 5 shards, and each of the 5 Khans wedges. Seems like a fun enough idea.

I took it a step further of course. How do you all feel about a tournament, EDH format, in which the rules are standard EDH, except your deck must conform to one of the 10 Ravnica guilds in color (easy enough) and be commanded by one of the legendaries associated with that guild?

To clarify: if you chose Azorius, you may use Brago, King Eternal in the 99, but your deck must feature Isperia the Inscrutable, Isperia, Supreme Judge, or Lavinia of the Tenth as the general.

What else could we do to further the flavor experience? Should we can any card stamped with one of your rival 9 guilds logo from your deck? Perhaps your guilds mechanic, detain, scavenge, etc, should be forced to be a sub theme? I want ideas because I may try to get this rolling at my LGS.

Now I know this limits certain things: I think that is good. We are going for flavor here. The Spikes all just said "no". I can hear you. The Johnny combo players are praising me for the idea (I'm sure it's been done before). All the Timmies are on board (if they can play Gruul).

griffstick says... #2

I like the idea how about a list of generals for each guild, shard, and wedge?

May 6, 2016 4:39 p.m.

kipahlord13 says... #3

I really like this idea, but one question. I don't know the Ravnica sets all that well, but, assuming one exists, could I use a mono-colored legendary creature associated with a guild, but not in both of the colors?

May 6, 2016 4:47 p.m.

MagicalHacker says... #4

This actually seems way more suited for a cycle/set of preconstructed decks to play.

May 6, 2016 5:06 p.m.

Atony1400 says... #5

I love the idea, I call ! (Jarad Commands the Dead)

May 6, 2016 5:25 p.m.

capriom85 says... #6

kipahlord13, yea but good luck. I think there are zero out there.

MagicalHacker, yes but they don't exist. So, here we are.

May 6, 2016 6:18 p.m.
May 6, 2016 9:43 p.m.

MagicalHacker says... #8

No I mean like you build the decks and keep them to play.

Cause if you're saying these will be built from more flavor than anything, then there are more cards that fit than can fit in one EDH/Commander deck.

May 6, 2016 10:49 p.m.

capriom85 says... #9

Oh, as in the moderator builds all the decks and distributes them?

May 7, 2016 8:51 a.m.

MagicalHacker says... #10

Exactly! For example, Azorius has 70 cards with the Azorius mark on them: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&mark=+[%22Azorius%22]

Of those, 4 are lands, 4 are legendary creatures (of which one needs to be the commander), and 2 are cards that can't be legally run in an Azorius deck (Supply/Demand and Trial/Error; they come up twice on the list, so it produces 4 extra cards on the list). This leaves you with 61 nonland, noncommander cards for the deck, which leaves you with no room for any other cards if you wanted 38 cards for the mana base.

Each other color combination has at least 3 more cards and as many as 7 more cards. Azorius would be the only deck with any room to add any non-marked cards, and even then you would be cutting out lands to do so. On top of all that, Spirit en-Dal would probably be the next best card to add since it's the only card outside of the two Ravnica blocks to have either detain or forecast.

I typically run 37 cards for my mana base, so these decks would really build themselves automatically based on the most appropriate rules.

THE FLAVOR WOULD BE SO GOOD THOUGH!

May 7, 2016 9:10 a.m.

capriom85 says... #11

Thanks for the link and statistics. That's definitely one way to go. Seems like a full set of each associated block would get us there. I probably have all of this laying around...given my collection and time frame, I can probably sort and have these sleeved up in several weeks.

This is so much easier than players bringing their own tuned up versions, but I think I kinda like it better.

May 7, 2016 9:14 a.m.

MagicalHacker says... #12

Hey no problem! This sounds like a fantastic idea, and the decks are probably all going to be pretty similar in terms of power level. :)

May 7, 2016 9:19 a.m.

capriom85 says... #13

I'm going to work on this and resurrect the thread when I organize and play the tournament. I'll let's ya know which guild ends up ruling Ravnica.

May 7, 2016 11:58 a.m.

griffstick says... #14

A list of generals

Alliance Guilds

Enemy Guilds

Shards & Wedges

May 7, 2016 12:18 p.m.

capriom85 says... #15

griffstick, the shards and wedges look good but the ruling I want to impose on this idea is the Guilds MUST use the Ravnica generals. Example: Azorius () must use Isperia the Inscrutable, Isperia, Supreme Judge, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, or Lavinia of the Tenth.

Orzhov () must use Ghost Council of Orzhova, Obzedat, Ghost Council, Teysa, Orzhov Scion, or Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts.

May 7, 2016 12:50 p.m.

griffstick says... #16

They are all from the ravnica and return to ravnica blocks

May 8, 2016 1:02 a.m.

capriom85 says... #17

Not the Dragonlords, though. Dragonlord Ojutai would be an illegal choice for an Azorius deck despite his color identity in this situation. He is from the Khans block as are the other Dragonlords

May 8, 2016 11:34 a.m.

griffstick says... #18

Oh I see

May 8, 2016 12:07 p.m.

capriom85 says... #19

Yea, so depending on the structure of the decks Ojutai may be a very real part of the Azorius 99 but the way I see it, we may end up with the Dragonlords only being part of the 99 of their respective clans.

May 8, 2016 3:28 p.m.

Ej1997 says... #20

How is this tournament thing going to work? And how can I be apart of it because I want to build Uril the miststalker

May 12, 2016 10:25 p.m.

capriom85 says... #21

Well I am going to do the Ravnica decks from my own collection and run the tournament at my LGS if I can organize it. You'd have to do the same at your LGS for guilds, shards, or wedges.

May 13, 2016 6:38 a.m.

This discussion has been closed