Huge Leaders: An EDH Variant
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on May 13, 2016, 9:17 a.m. by Crayfish
Most of us know the EDH variant of Tiny Leaders, where the decks are only 50 cards and the cmc must be 3 or less. So me and a friend came up with our own variant: Huge Leaders!
The deckbuilding rules are simple:
1: Each nonland card, including the commander, must be CMC 5+
2: The deck is 100 card-singleton
3: The ban-list is the same as the normal EDH banlist
What do you guys think? I know its dumb, but I figured I would post my ideas because why not!
Some credit is due to Ostrichman01 for designing this concept with me
Epochalyptik says... #3
Have you considered the physical and statistical impracticality of a 200-card deck?
May 13, 2016 9:47 a.m.
Epochalyptik Thats why you can also play 100-card Huge Leaders, but the craziness of a 200 card deck would be, well, crazy. lol
May 13, 2016 10:05 a.m.
I have a 150 card 5 colour scion of the ur dragon dragon deck so i could fit in all the coolest dragons. Thing is full of duals and all double sleeved. I have some big ass hands and its pretty much impossible to shuffle. Even shuffling in halves, when you try to get the deck to just sot on the table, it keeps falling over. The other disadvantage, basically no ramp and nothing to do until turn 5 is pretty boring for the begininning of every game. Not to mention basically switching off whole archetypes. Soldiers, slivers, humans, elves, goblins, zombies etc etc. As you can, i thought about this when i heard about tiny leaders and i couldn't think of a way to make it viable
May 13, 2016 10:35 a.m.
It seems fun, although the 200 card deck makes it a bit pricey and volatile to play seriously. I would stick to 100 card limit for simplicitys sake.
May 13, 2016 11:45 a.m.
Yeah I'd stick to 100 cards too. I mean, some people even have problems shuffling a deck that big.
How about you tweak the rules a bit?
Make it that you can only play Creatures that are 5CMC or higher, but other card types are fair game.
Yes, that's going to shut down weenie decks, but not every format has to appeal to every type of player.
If you can't play Creatures for the first couple of turns at least it will allow for some interesting mechanics where you basically "set up" your board with ramp cards, or maybe value Artifacts and Enchantments. I think this could be exciting, like a game of chess.
Then by Turns 3-5 everyone is going RRRAAAWWWRRR with big Creatures. It's the ultimate Tammy/Timmy format!!
May 13, 2016 12:56 p.m.
ZeGinger maiden77: Yeah, im probably gonna drop the deck size to 100. :P
Argeaux: I do like that idea a lot! You don't think that would lead to ramp decks dominating too much though, do you?
May 13, 2016 1:35 p.m.
Of COURSE it would!
You could even just call the format "Ramp" and be done with it. Who doesn't like playing huge Creatures every now and then?
(Pssst Argy, there's a format called Tiny Leaders for a reason.)
If someone is playing a lot of Counter spells those Ramp decks might just rue the day ...
May 13, 2016 1:41 p.m.
How about you can play up to two lands per turn? That way the entire thing is more explosive? Though it may lead to a rise in landfall decks...
Maybe only >5 cmc Artifacts and Enchantment? I don't know...
May 13, 2016 1:45 p.m.
I wouldn't do two lands per turn.
There's enough ramp cards available without that.
I think half the fun would be the early positioning.
I know everyone in my play group groans if someone drops a Sol Ring on their first turn.
Also, don't forget that you would need Creatures, land, and ramp cards. No guarantee they will fall into your hand in the order you want.
May 13, 2016 1:50 p.m.
Also, I think it would be more interesting to allow any non-creature spell to be in the deck.
Would create an even more interesting early game with people choosing whether or not to use a lot of Counter spells.
If people want to play more than one land per turn there are already cards around that can help them do that.
May 13, 2016 1:53 p.m. Edited.
I'd do permanents at 5 cmc plus and for non perms I'd make it 3 cmc+
May 13, 2016 2:26 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #15
Or just make it a flat 4 cmc or greater. Tiny Leaders restricts the cmc to 3 or less so it's only logical to do the other end of the spectrum.
May 13, 2016 3:26 p.m.
Ostrichman01 says... #16
How bout
Creatures: cmc 5+
Non-creature permanent: cmc 3+
It still allows for some form of ramp but not too much and still embodies the "mono big things" idea that is the center of the format
vomdur says... #2
Would be pretty boring for the first 4 rounds but they should be quick. Also would make multi color decks more challenging because most mana fixing has a low cmc. I think it would be fun because everyone would be dropping bombs every turn though
May 13, 2016 9:33 a.m.