Turn Clocks: Use or No?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Dec. 25, 2014, 7:17 p.m. by Cybersix
I play in roughly 3.5 different groups with any consistency. They all have different house rules. One groups sets poison counters and other cards based on an assumed 20 starting life to 40. Others have 'no tucking', or even simply 'no Vorinclex' rules. But at the heart of many rules is the acknowledgement that some of us are making significant sacrifices of time as adults to come out, therefor my favourite house rule is a turn clock, like in chess. Play whatever you want as long as you can do it in an agreed time is what I say! If the clock runs out it is EOT, no matter what.
Also, "Ugin, The Spirit-Dragon" planeswalker is real and out and will soon be playing bass guitar with 'Kozilek And The Eldrazis'!
December 25, 2014 7:20 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #4
Turn clocks are a no-go, they make playing any multi-card combo deck (storm) impossible, and enforce the stigma that aggro should be the only archetype played ever.
December 25, 2014 7:28 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #5
Having played with people in commander before who are terrible about taking 30+ minute turns, I'm tempted to agree immediately. However, you'll have to quantify the time allowed.
I could see a 10 minute limit being imposed. I know that plans change, I know you need to dive into the think tank sometimes but it doesn't take you 10 minutes.
Anything less than 10 minutes will really hose people with decks that have complicated combos. However, complicated combos STILL don't take 30 minutes much less 10.
December 25, 2014 7:42 p.m.
That's a bit silly. We're all supposed to be adults. Do what you must, don't be a dick.
December 25, 2014 8:19 p.m.
notamardybum says... #7
when someone is taking a long turn, drink a beer
December 25, 2014 8:45 p.m.
I think even with a crazy combo deck 5mins is more than enough to play your turn. I hate when people sit there and stare at their hand on their turn like they havent ever seen their deck before.
In a casual setting i just tell buddy to hurry his ass up but we order pizza and drink beer all night so its not really a rushed situation anyways and we play with a lot of house rules to make stuff fun because our casual decks dont use ban lists we just ban certain things such as Land destruction and inf turns. We are Johnny players. we enjoy a big random crazy combo with like 8 cards that is almost impossible to pull of but instantly wins the game with everyone laughing.
December 25, 2014 9:04 p.m.
asasinater13 says... #9
I play a zegana deck that draws a bunch of cards, and sometimes it happens that I don't get finished sorting my hand by the time my turn comes back, I still try to keep it to 5 minutes but I've made lots of misplays for that. I like 10 minutes as a cap though, I'm not playing combo-control but it shouldn't take that long at all
December 26, 2014 12:32 a.m.
Servo_Token says... #10
I play storm in standard and legacy right now, and piloted both UR and mono red in modern for months, and I've never taken a 10 minute turn, like ever. That's ridiculous. Know what your cards do. Unless you're reading all of the cards in buddy guy's EDH deck that you're borrowing, there's no reason that you should be taking a ten minute turn either.
December 26, 2014 1:05 a.m.
ColdHeartedSith says... #11
What is this thread? Ive never taken more than 2 minutes to decide a turns moves ever in life. I agree with BlueMage, if people were taking 5 minutes a turn in my group with the exception of a huge combo that goes off in multiple steps and changes its configuration as it jumps to another opponent and wins the game or nearly. If though it were taking over a half hour to go around once I'd be whipping out an egg timer. I am shocked looking at many of these comments like whoa ten minutes and 20 mins a turn I'd punch an old lady for that shit!
December 26, 2014 2:52 a.m.
LOL please don't on my account, I only have one gran left! Background: We frequently have large multiplayer games, like 6, even 7 players (especially on the base). Taking more then 10 minutes means an hour for one turn of play...
Also..update on Ugin, the Spirit-Dragon: Ugin is VERY doubling seasonable, and kills all colored tokens every round...He could become a staple in Karn artifact decks as well as Eldrazi tribal.
December 26, 2014 3:31 a.m.
Hjaltrohir says... #14
I think a ~5min turn clock is reasonable and not unfair
December 26, 2014 3:42 a.m.
There's no reason a turn should take a long time unless it's the turn the player plans to win and has to assemble the combo or whatever. Saying that, however, I play a mono green EDH that has the ability to draw through about half the deck in one turn, but has to do it one card at a time. That can take a while. But it usually wins the next turn.
December 26, 2014 3:44 a.m.
i agree with notamardybum. only time i play commander is casually drinking and fucking around. i love the format, but it's meant for multiplayer fun and a lot people tend to forget that.
December 26, 2014 8 a.m.
I've never known anyone to take longer than 10 minutes, ever. Even that longest turn I'm thinking of involved some seriously complicated maths and interactions. If a person is playing a combo deck they should really know how to do what they want to be doing and therefore shouldn't have to think that long anyway. You don't want to stigmatise a certain type of play though. Ie. if you set the turn time limit too low then it's basically like saying 'you must play aggro'. Leave it at a healthy 12 minutes or something which is fine for all deck types but just encourages people to speed up slightly.
20 minutes a turn though? Jesus. I play combo control and don't take that long. It must be people that really don't know what they're doing or something? I don't know.
kynrayn - Commander is for whatever you want it to be. It's not 'meant' to be anything.
December 26, 2014 9:36 a.m.
If you are actually doing something during that 5+ minute turn then I am more inclined to allow it to continue unabated. However if all you are doing is twiddling your thumbs, and 'checking the board state' then to you I say shit or get off the pot.
December 26, 2014 11:04 a.m.
Dalektable says... #19
Turns shouldn't take longer than ten minutes really. That's the longest I've taken, things with Teysa, Orzhov Scion can get a bit crazy with all the right pieces on board. Lots of triggers, card to draw and things to sacrifice happening so turns can take a few minutes.
December 26, 2014 11:22 a.m.
The only time we have things take ten minutes is when two brothers that play in my group go at it. These guys get salty, carry vendettas, and will stop the game just to argue. It's usually these turns that I go and grab myself some more coffee and chack tappedout.
I loathe this more than actually taking long. You need some time to think because you just drew a full new hand and there's a lot of pieces out, be my guest. Take 3 extra turns? Sure bud, I don't mind at all. As long as you don't intentionally drag games out or regularly take 5 minute turns, I won't say a thing.
December 26, 2014 12:15 p.m.
You could try playing with a range of influence. It might speed it up seeing as there are less players to focus on during your turn (although, it might make it take longer as only two players can hit you at a time. Just depends I suppose.)
December 27, 2014 2:44 a.m.
nighthawk101 says... #22
I played against a Superfriends deck that took a ten minute turn due to several planeswalkers and some tutoring.
Otherwise, there's no reason your turns should last.longer than fifteen minutes. You probably don't need to have a clock out, but if someone's talking a long time let them know.
December 27, 2014 8:54 a.m.
canterlotguardian says... #23
I agree with notamardybum. Beer is my best friend during long EDH games. That, and pizza.
December 27, 2014 4:37 p.m.
I tend to believe that if you find yourself in need a turn clock too often, then you should really just build a better deck. If you build a better deck that will encourage your friends to build better decks to keep up with the competition.
That's my philosophy anyway.
December 27, 2014 6:01 p.m.
And by build a better deck, I mean you should be playing a deck that has the capability of FORCING a clock on the game by winning if people don't stop it. Be aggressive. Be Bold. Either you'll win or you'll loose, but either way the game is going to be over.
December 27, 2014 6:05 p.m.
Named_Tawyny says... #26
I think it's really situationally dependent.. Are you just sitting and thinking for 5 minutes? That's uncalled for. But are you actively playing, tutoring, casting, attacking, etc??? Sometimes that can take a while with moving parts.
Also, what if it's the defending player who takes ages to choose their blockers? See the clock running out, and stall until DING, safe again. Not cool.
December 27, 2014 6:07 p.m.
readerrw07 says... #27
Adaptive turn clock. 1 minute the first few turns, going longer and longer as the board state warrants it, capping out at 5-7 minutes. sorry but I don wanna sit there and watch you play solitaire making your thirty slivers or whatever
January 18, 2015 6:01 a.m.
Please check dates before posting. 3 weeks is a fairly long period for a thread to be dead, when considering necro'ing it.
However the idea of an adaptive clock is novel. I like that.
January 18, 2015 6:16 a.m.
readerrw07 says... #29
I am Rederrw07 the Necromancer! Fear my necro-bumping powers!!
My bad though, I hadnt been paying attention to how long the thread had ben dead, bu wanted to give my two cents since this is an issure that has been brought up in my playgroup.
We actually use a 30 second timer for about the first 3-4 turns or so, since those turns are rarely more than a land drop and maybe a tutor, though usually we'll tutor/fetch on the other persons turn (play WIndswept Heath, say we're gonna fetch Overgrown Tomb then tap Overgrown Tomb for Dark Ritual, then cast Demonic Tutor, then discard both Dark Ritual and Heath, then use the other turns to fetch/tutor, making a multi-card combo only need about an 8 second turn)
After that we slowly start increasing the timer as we go, just to keep people from taking too long per turn. This also has the bonus effect of people keeping that time limit in mind when deckbuilding, so we dont see twenty minute combes that have to be played out, rather than summarized so we can check for responses)
Epochalyptik says... #2
Eh. I tend to take long turns late in the game because I play a combo-control deck. I try to do most of the thinking on my opponents' turns, but sometimes my turns can run out to four or five minutes. Granted, the game ends during that turn.
December 25, 2014 7:19 p.m.