I feel like cEDH gets a bad rap.
The tone of the format is in the name itself. It’s competitive, and people are going to be as competitive as possible. It’s not to say you can’t make your pet deck and play it (much more on this later), but the implication being that you better be ready to min-max your deck as hard as possible, or get trounced by those who are.
This isn’t a bad thing. In fact, I’d argue this is what makes the format so good. You know exactly what you’re getting into, and you can design around that. It isn’t too far off from supported competitive formats, which is probably why I enjoy it so much. I’ve been playing competitive Magic for so long, it’s hard to not want to go hard in any format you play, casual or not. cEDH is the rule zero, and you can build without frills, salt, or nonsense.
It’s not that I don’t understand casual commander. Sometimes, you want to hang out with your friends over some snacks and beverages and shoot the stuff. I think it’s incredibly important to have this space, because not everyone is going to tryhard. My issue lies before a game is even played. It honestly feels like there are way too many restrictions, compromises, and eggshells that I could never bother trying to sift through. I could not imagine a person new to Magic and getting into commander, figuring out a super sick three or four card combo, and being told “This is cool” by one group, and “You can’t do that” in another. The inconsistency and arbitrary subsections of cards allowed, which is one of the essences of rule zero, is what drives me away from ever wanting to navigate. That said, where casual commander falters, cEDH picks up emphatically. The only thing sitting between you and victory is your deckbuilding, and the three other opponents.
Of course, this isn’t to say cEDH isn’t without faults. The format is ruthlessly, relentlessly, and almost cartoonishly broken on a fundamental level. So many decks, and even games, revolve around someone trying to assemble one of many busted combos, and everyone else not falling behind while trying to assemble their own. If you don’t see those, you’ll see some stax pieces buying just enough time to run the board over. It’s not a great framing of the format, and can be off-putting at best to newcomers, and downright ridiculously inaccessible at worst from a deckbuilding standpoint.
However, I do think that it’s important to approach cEDH a bit differently. I don’t think it’s a format that requires you to conform to a rigid meta. Yes, there are certain rules you should follow, but that’s every format. Think of it like this; If you had an idea to build around a strategy or even some cards, how would you make it as broken as possible? Things open up a lot more when that mindset is implemented. Combined with the already agreed upon notion that everyone playing cEDH is trying to win by any means necessary, you can genuinely go wild with whatever you want, how you want. I don’t like to think of it as 100 card Legacy, but rather multiplayer Vintage.
It’s a joy to explore cEDH as a newer player, and I can only be more and more excited to push the boundaries of the format even more.
Anthony Lowry (they/he) is a seasoned TCG, MMORPG, and FPS veteran. They are extensively knowledgeable on the intricacies of many competitive outlets, and are always looking for a new challenge in the gaming sphere.