Feature Suggestion - "Alternate" Commanders

TappedOut forum

Posted on Oct. 6, 2019, 9:28 p.m. by Mortlocke

I'm not sure how many other players practice this, but I have an Alternate Commander for one of my decks. Alternate Commander defined as: a legal - meets color restriction and is legendary creature that is not part of the 99 cards of the deck it may helm. I switch to my alternate commander when i'm in a less competitive meta. For the deck's page here on Tappedout, i'd like to be able to tag an alternate commander card as AltCmdr that would give it the following properties:

• The card will sit next to the commander card space on the deck page, but with a special border around it to differentiate it from how a partner commander would be displayed. While not officially noted anywhere in EDH/Commander, swapping to a different commander while keeping the same deck is legal- barring any unique rules in a tournament or LGS event.

• The card tagged with AltCmdr won't not counted as part of the 100 cards in the deck, and will not affect the legality or official numbers of the deck - it won't change the mana count properties, pricing, or legality of the deck (like say if it were a creature from unglued or unhinged).

As per Femme_Fatale's words: "As for feature requests, do make another thread about those if you suggest them. I'm subscribed to this forum and will see those discussions myself.", i'm making my suggestion in a separate thread.

Slight Tangent On Alternate Commanders Show

According to mtgCommander.net rules 2 and 4 state: "Players choose a legendary creature as the "Commander" for their deck" and "A Commander deck must contain exactly 100 cards, including the Commander." respectively. By swapping commanders, you're essentially getting a different deck as a Commander deck is defined as a Legendary creature and 99 other cards. That's the argument I have for Alternate Commanders anyway. If i'm wrong - let me know. Because I look so dumb right now if I was just flat out wrong and a ruling was put in place to address this. Seriously though. Let me know! - endrant.

DaWubber says... #2

I switch between Ghalta, Primal Hunger and God-Eternal Rhonas in my Ghalta deck.

October 6, 2019 9:57 p.m.

Joe_Ken_ says... #3

Sounds pretty interesting granted I don’t have a very competitive meta and would probably be switching up in terms of Commanders like maybe swapping Adeliz, The Cinderwind for some better spell slinging commander.

October 6, 2019 10:10 p.m.

Fruesion says... #4

I build a Ink-Treader Nephilim deck.

When the play group does not allow Ink treader (very rare case) I use the gaylords - 4 colour soldiers .... sorry I don't actually know their real name, they allow you to put a land into play on end step or draw a card.

October 6, 2019 11:38 p.m.

Demarge says... #5

For the moment you can simulate it by just putting the normal tag on each possible commander and just explain in deck description.

October 7, 2019 8:29 a.m.

Mortlocke says... #6

Demarge, you're right - I could. But I don't want it to mess with the legal standing of the deck. Also, that brings up a new idea! as part of this suggestion- Ms. Femme_Fatale, I'd like to add one more aspect to this:

• All commanders tagged as the AltCmdr will show up when players search for a deck by commander. (e.g. when a player goes to deck search, and under commander types in a commander name- if that commander is under the alternate commander tag, the deck that deck will show up in the search results along with decks where that same commander is just the normal commander.)

Does that sound reasonable? Maybe we should also add to deck search a checkbox for "only alternate commanders"? or "no alternate commanders"? What do you all think?

TypicalTimmy, I want something distinctly different from a sideboard- something that "officially" acknowledges an alternate commander as part of the deck but not in the deck. Just having a sideboard is illegal and will potentially confuse people when they see a bunch of legendary creatures under a sideboard that shouldn't be there. I don't really care about affecting deck price. What I care about is that the deck is shown as a legal deck, and that the official land mana/card costs of the deck aren't affected by an Alternate Commander.

October 8, 2019 9:56 a.m. Edited.

Mortlocke says... #7

TypicalTimmy, okay. I shouldn't have used to word "official". I guess what I was trying to convey was that to this specific deck there are "officially" two commanders. As for a "Secret Commander" - just not my style - I don't like it.

Also, your suggestion of having a sideboard is odd. Mostly because you told me that my suggested feature of an "Alternate" Commander is illegal - which i'd like to see your source on that as there is no ruling against players swapping commanders in a deck between games. Also I didn't realize this until now, but in Duel Commander there is an official ruling allowing players to swap commanders between games source - see commander swap rule

However, no where on http://mtgcommander.net/ does it say anything about 10 cards for a sideboard being an option - same with Duel Commander - source - see 400.6 Sideboards. I personally have only heard about a sideboard being "legal" as total misinformation - and should not be propagated. Please correct me if i'm wrong here - and cite your source as well.

The design behind an Alternate Commander is a noted legal legendary creature that can also helm the deck and be swapped out between games. Again, there is NO ACTUAL RULING AGAINST THIS therefore it's LEGAL and there shouldn't be anything against noting that in some fashion. All I want to do is to essentially note it in some prominent way that will not have any bearing on the deck's official numbers.

October 8, 2019 1:34 p.m. Edited.

Mortlocke says... #8

TypicalTimmy, re-reading my comment I realize I might sound a bit nerd-ragey (heavy breathing and fast typing ensues). I didn't mean for my words to sound like that and i'm sorry if you or anyone interpreted them that way. I guess I was a bit miffed at the declarative statement of "That is not how the game works, and thus it is not how the site allows decks to be built." But have absolutely nothing to back it up with. Again, correct me if i'm wrong here - but as far as I know in EDH/Commander it's completely legal to swap out a commander between games so long as they meet the normal rules of color restriction, and are Legendary.

All I want as a feature on this site is that if your specific deck plays with an Alternate commander - (defined as a legal - as in meets color restrictions and is legendary - creature to helm the deck that is not part of the 99) you can note on your page that you at times swap to them.

October 9, 2019 12:47 p.m.

Daedalus19876 says... #9

I would like to see this feature. It's simply reflecting the reality that many EDH decks are built so that multiple legendary creatures can be swapped.

November 12, 2019 2:01 p.m.