How Should an EDH Tournament be organized?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on July 3, 2014, 5:57 p.m. by Ohnoeszz
Trying to put together a weekly or bi-weekly tournament for both competitive and casual players. I think the best way to start is just a simple $5 entry 8 player bracket, winner takes all.
Another option would be 4 player pods for a multiplayer game, winner takes $20.
I think it would be best to mix in both, alternating by week for 1v1 and multiplayer.
Personally, I'm okay with early combos to win, land destruction as a strategy and other such frowned upon things. I like the competitive nature of that... But in order to draw people in (I have enough people to start, but we will need to draw more to sustain), I think there needs to be a way to make the tournament accessible and palatable to more casual players who would otherwise be driven away.
One idea I've heard that seems reasonable is that infinite combos don't work until a certain turn number. That should give most decks some sort of opportunity to set up or develop a response. If this rule is used, what should that turn # be?
What rules would you advise? What ban lists? Do you have a different idea for tournament format, or prizes, or anything really? I'm looking for ideas to make this something that will draw 8+ every Saturday (to a local shop).
Before you go too far with this, if you want to cater to more casual crowds, then you'll want to do the poplar point system that leagues have been adopting. It basically penalizes you for winning with-in five turns, tutoring all the time, and this and that, while giving you points for odd win-cons.
Unfortunately I don't have a sample list handy.
July 3, 2014 6:10 p.m.
Indigoindigo says... #4
What Bennie Smith describes here is a tournament I'd consider joining:
"four-player pods, have a $5 entry fee, and each player receives one Born of the Gods booster pack with two additional booster packs designated for the winner. When a player is eliminated from the game, that player gives their booster pack to the player still in the game they felt made the best contribution to the game.
So if some jerk combo kills everyone on the third turn, everyone else can just keep their booster pack and keep playing without "the winner." I dunno, but my hunch is that the prospect of only walking away with three booster packs isn't enough incentive for people to play jerky fast combo decks. Conversely, if you can win in a way that leaves everyone smiling, you could potentially walk away with six booster packs. I'm willing to give these Commander pods another shot!"
July 3, 2014 6:17 p.m.
It is less that I want to cater to the casual and more that I think it's necessary to create a consistent player-base.
July 3, 2014 7:18 p.m.
I remember going to a place that Had a list. I'll type down what I remember.
I don't remember what amount of - or + these were, but Im assuming you can adopt your own/figure out which ones were good and bad.
"I just wanna play everything!" -? for using a 5 color commander.
"It's the only card that fit!" -? for never casting your commander
-1,-2,-3,-4,and -5 for winning on turn 5,4,3,2 or 1, respectively.
+2,+3, +4, and +5 killing 2/3/4/5 people at once.
"I don't wanna play anymore!" -? killing yourself.
"Nope" -? casting more than ~10 counterspells in a game.
"The highlander" +? personally killing all of your opponents commanders at least once.
....I'm sure there was more, but that's all I can think of at the moment.
July 3, 2014 7:46 p.m.
I'm in an EDH league currently and it's awesome. I will post more about it but I just wanted to say that if you plan on doing $5 in, $20 win- I would combo out on turn 3 to take the loot.
BULK RARES AND FOILS AND PRIZE SUPPORT!
July 3, 2014 8:03 p.m.
angrychains says... #8
host french tournaments, leave a few tables open to casual players who may become interested in its more cutthroat world
July 3, 2014 9:06 p.m.
French ban list with 1v1 FNM style tournament seems really solid. My only issue with "achievement lists" like above is that it's made by the playgroup hosting the event and their biases take effect. It punishes decks they don't like ("I wanna play everything" -?, for example punishes 5 color decks).
July 6, 2014 9:59 a.m.
Done poorly, I can see how it's just biases that manifest as rules in the format, but done well I think it could be something to even the playing field a bit.
IMO The best idea so far has been to state that infinite combos don't loop until turn 7.
I like the booster pack idea as a way to switch things up but not as the typical format.
The poplar point system seems like a good idea. I'd like to see some different ways of doing that so I could get an idea of what can/should be limited by point loss. The 5 color thing for instance would really just hate out the one person we have playing 5 color elementals (not a great deck - fun though - aside from multiplayer where anything can happen).
Does anyone know of any point systems listed online?
July 6, 2014 4:46 p.m.
Don't make them pay for it. Official tournaments are buy ins to fund the host. Drafts are buy in to pay for the packs. Same with FNM with prizes. Unless you are putting up something as a prize. You could set up a leaderboard. 4 player games. First player out gets a point, winner gets four, and so on. If one player infinite combos or auto wins, the rest play the game out without the winner. You can keep a chart that has the standing leaderboard which can help make it more fun than having to pay.
July 6, 2014 7:50 p.m.
My league uses a very simple point system for it's leaderboard.
5 Games per season (Every other Friday)4 Player pods if possible. (Sometimes a 3 or 5 happens)1 pt for showing up. If you win a pod, you get 3 points per player including yourself. They also have the "Combat Damage" bonus. It is awarded to whoever deals the most combat damage in one turn (it rewards multiple combat step shenanigans). It's either 2 or 3 points, I can't remember.
After 5 Games, your lowest is score is removed and the points are tallied. Last season I tied for 2nd place, 3 points behind the guy who won.
It's free to play (and there's prize support) but they make the suggestion of buying a pack or two to keep the lights on.
July 8, 2014 9:02 a.m.
Oh yeah, you commit to a Commander for a season, but your decklist can change. I chose Child of Alara , but switched between 5c Reanimator and ANT.
Every other week is ideal for a league. I would be hard pressed to show up every Friday. That's a lot of Friday evenings. Girlfriends get mad.
erabel says... #2
As soon as you make it a competition, expect casual players to not want to play in the competition. I'm a hyper casual player, but, like, I know you can't please everyone. Have a competitive EDH event for 1v1 and multiplayer, but also leave some space for more casual EDH players.
Don't try and lump them into one event and make everyone happy. It'll end up with unhappy Spikes who can't play as quickly or as competitively as they want to, and unhappy non-Spikes who are getting beat almost every game. Not saying that casual players are bad, here, but they would probably build their decks with an expectation of a longer, more political or otherwise entertaining game, not a competitive scenario.
July 3, 2014 6:07 p.m.