At any rate, I cannot deny that for me Magic has taken a backseat to other interests as of late. But now I feel like that is all on the verge of turning around. Magic itself is again becoming compelling and fun after a run of less than stellar sets and products. And I'm simply coming to miss the game after those "other interests" have started to lose their hold on me.
Dominaria and Battlebond were simply stellar sets for the Commander player, and while this year's actually Commander release has gotten a lot of flack from fans (some deserved, some not so much), anyone who's actually given the decks a fair chance ought to know that they decks are still quite fun despite their shortcomings, perceived or otherwise.
The normal process with the Commander precon decks is, we generally play them as-is for about one weekend at best, maybe even one night, before we eagerly start making modifications and additions - or scrapping them for parts as is sometimes the case. This time, however, we thought we'd try something a little different.
Myself and another person have been spit-balling ideas back and forth on how to rejuvenate our group's waning enthusiasm and engagement in Magic for about a year, as this conversation first started with the 2017 Commander set. But we didn't really get on the ball enough with it to actually put anything in motion while the C17 decks were still fresh and exciting. So the idea kinda languished in limbo.
But, another year, another commander release, and now this time we've laid the groundwork to actually run this little experiment. What exactly is this idea you ask? Well it's basically just a fairly standard Commander league with a point system and all that good stuff, but we also have a structure for improving the precons along the way to keep things more or less even between everyone.
One of the issues, a minor one but still present, has always been a disparity in card access. To put it more plainly, we all have very different card pools, and different budgetary restriction on expanding said card pools. Even more plainly: some of us got better shit than others. We are all close friends and have a strong social contract - no one wants to piss anyone off so much that we stop playing together, so it's mutual self-interest to keep things relatively even and fun.
But at the same time, we all still do shit anyway despite knowing full well it's gonna piss off someone else at the table.
Another disparity is that some of us are a little more... shall we say, results-oriented. Well, I think more accurately, I'd say we're all equally results-oriented, but are focused on different results. None among us is a hardcore "Spike" but certainly some of us are more motivated to win games than others. Meanwhile some of us are more interested in just pulling off cool plays. We all WANT to win, but in some cases we are okay with losing so long as we get to do whatever it is we built our deck to do, before we go down.
Nothing wrong with any of that, inherently. It does, however, cause some friction now and then.
Enter the League point system. The idea behind it is, you get points for winning games, but you also get points for doing cool shit. You get penalties for doing things that make everyone feel bad and not have fun. So at the end of the designated league period, you can win it all either by taking down the most opponents or by just doing the most cool shit and having fun. Realistically, your best chances are probably to focus on winning games while going out of your way to do cool shit on the way. But I digress... the gist is, for those who want to win, they get rewarded, but for those more interested in just creating epic moments also get rewarded.
But, in addition to the standard point/achievment system, we're also regulating the process to upgrade these decks as we go along. This part is pretty simple. The first league game will be played with completely unmodified precon decks. Then, after each game we will get to make a set number of changes to our decks. By the end of the league's run, going into our final game, we will have made a total of 25 changes to each deck. This should allow for a high degree of personalization but still keep the core identities of the decks from changing too much.
25 changes should also allow room for some improvements to the mana bases in these decks. The mana situation is almost always one of the biggest flaws in the stock precon lists, so affording the group the chance to smooth over the mana issues somewhat will only lead to more fun games and less mana screw/flood.
25 is also, we hope, a number sufficiently high to allow the option of running an "Alternate" commander - as most of you should know each deck has a "face" commander that is intended to be the main one used, but also two alternatives that can be utilized instead. In some cases the alternate commanders are pretty on-theme, and in some cases they are very different. The hope here is that 25 swaps is enough to make running one of the less thematic commanders viable without hamstringing that deck.
Finally, the target number of games for this league is 8. If we do further leagues after this, we will likely increase that count, but it also depends on how frequently we are actually able to play games. We don't want a league to take 6 months to complete, but if it does the intended job of getting people re-invested and increasing our desire to play games, then we can look at bumping that number up to 10 or 12 or whatever feels right.
Again this is all a first for us, and an experiment. If the idea proves fruitful but the numbers are off, we can adjust. If it doesn't work at all, then, well, at least we'll all be really familiar with one of the four C18 decks at the end.
Here is the point system we are launching with. As with everything else, this is subject to change based on actual experience - if it ain't working as intended we'll fix it afterward, or even on the fly if it is a serious issue.
Achievements
• Coupe de Grace – Eliminate an opponent
• First Blood – First player to deal combat damage to an
opponent
• REAL ULTIMATE POWER!!! – Ultimate a planeswalker (without
Doubling Season)
• The crew – Have your commander and both alternate
commanders in play at once
• Spellbook – Draw 10+ cards in a turn (Wheels don’t count)
• Game of Thrones – Become the Monarch or gain the City’s
Blessing
• The Varys – Save an opponent from death
• The Mountain – Kill an opponent after they attack you down
to below 5 life or have dealt 19 to 20 general damage to you
• The Archmage – Destroy one of each in one turn: Land,
Creature, Enchantment, Artifact, and Planeswalker (auras falling off a creature
you kill don’t count)
• Dethrone who? – Reach a life total of 100 or more
Penalties
• The Littlefinger – Control another player’s turn
(Mindslaver, etc.)
• Roll for Sanity Loss – Attack with a creature with the
Annihilator ability.
• Nuclear Flyswatter – Use a sweeper to kill one creature
• The Ned Stark – Kill an opponent on or before Turn 5
• Hogging the Spotlight – Take a 10+ minute turn
• Glitch in the Matrix – Play any one card 5+ times in a
game
• Go to Hellbent – Wipe out one or more opponent's hand (i.e. Mind Twist, or Wheel + Notion Thief)
• Playing With Myself – Go infinite, or take 3 or more
consecutive turns
• The Cersei – Kill multiple players in one turn via X-spell
or cheese/combo (just attacking with dudes when everyone is at low life
shouldn’t count)
• Bastard Sphinx – Hit someone with Magister Sphinx or similar
effect (Sorin, Master of Cruelties, etc), unless they deserve it (i.e. they are
over 120 life or something)
• The Oberyn – Be killed by an opponent after dealing 19 or
20 general damage to them, or attacking them down to below 5 life
Some of these items have little caveats or qualifiers attached, but these are probably unnecessary, really. Every achievement or penalty
is subject to a “Spirit of the Law” ruling. The wording of these is much less
important than the intent behind them and the intent should be pretty clear. In
general if something makes the table groan it should be a penalty and if it
makes everyone laugh or cheer, then it should be worth a point. If something
technically counts as an achievement or penalty going by the letter, but seems
contrary to the spirit/intent behind the rule and the table agrees, then the
point/penalty can be waived. If necessary a vote can be called and a 3-1 vote
either way decides the issue.
Personally I don't think the need for an actual vote like that will come up - again we're all friends and we're all just trying to have some fun. But shit happens, so best to be prepared for any problems.
Some of those names could use some work, too. Open to feedback on that, btw.
Next post, I will reveal which deck I am playing in this league and start talking about my approach to the upgrade structure. Tweaking/tuning/optimizing these decks is one of my favorite aspects of the Commander precons, so I'm excited to get into that phase!
Enjoy.
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