Commander (EDH) is a multiplayer Magic: The Gathering format defined by three pillars: social (hanging out with friends), creative (building decks around a chosen legendary creature commander), and stable (no card rotation, allowing decks from 2000 to be played today). Key rules include: 100-card singleton decks (except basic lands), commander tax (increasing cost when recasting from command zone), color identity restrictions (cards must match commander's colors), 40 life starting total, and commander damage (21 combat damage from your commander ends the game). The format emphasizes fun, politics, and personal expression over competitive play, making it accessible to new players while offering deep strategic depth.
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How to Play Commander | The Command Zone 745 | MTG EDH Magic GatheringAdded:
Greetings, humans. You have entered the command zone, your destination for all aspects of Elder Dragon Highlander.
Enjoy your stay.
>> Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Command Zone podcast. I'm your host Rachel Weekes.
>> I'm Jimmy Wong. And today we're talking about the fundamentals.
How to play this format that we so love, Commander.
>> Yeah, this is a great episode for new players. Obviously, uh if you're someone that is trying to get someone else into the game of Magic and they're looking for a nice podcast to sit down to, this is the one for them.
>> Yeah. If you've got a friend that Marvel is uh kicking them into Magic, finally pushing them over the line, you can send this their way.
>> Yes. Or The Hobbit or Reality Fracture.
>> That That's true. Maybe Reality Fracture is the one that did it. Yeah. Uh today we're talking all about Commander, all of the rules that you need to play, all of the reasons why it's awesome. And we're going to start from the very beginning. Uh Commander was defined by the group that created it as three things. As a social format, a creative format, and a stable format. And I think those are the three big pillars that I think of when I think of Commander.
Social, you get to hang out with with your friends. You get creative. You get to build your own decks. You get to play with all of the cards. You possibilities are endless. And stable things don't change that fast. There's not a ton of bands. This the card pool doesn't rotate. It just basically means a deck that you had in 2000 is probably a deck you can play today.
>> Yeah. And not to mention, it is currently the most popular format. So, if you're going to a game store or a convention, there's a good chance that you'll be able to find people to play Commander with. Uh, and again, yeah, the social aspect of it is one of my favorite parts about it. You can sit down with a group of friends and casually play the game all the way to very competitively, and you get to define that as well with your group of friends and your play group. A little bit of a caveat, this is not going to be a video about how to play Magic. There's a lot of good videos about that. We've actually put one out um on the Wizards of the Coast channel. You can check that out. We'll put a link in the description. And if you want to learn to play, we don't necessarily recommend Commander. Best way to learn the fundamentals is on Arena where you can play 1v one. You can play at your own pace and there's really great tutorials for teaching you.
>> Yeah, you can do that on a computer or on a smartphone.
>> Free to download.
>> Lots of ways to learn how to play and that's definitely the best way to learn.
Commander is a very intimidating format for new players. Uh but of course there's always going to be exceptions to some of the things we say and we'll go I'll go over all of them as we play and talk.
>> But basically don't everything that we say today is stuff that you can know from the base and uh there might be exceptions. They say that uh commander rules are always the same except on Tuesdays. Uh so as as you learn how to play more, you're going to learn these exceptions. Uh you don't necessarily need to learn them all today.
>> Yeah.
>> All right.
>> All right. Why is Commander great?
>> Yeah. We're going to take a second just to sell you on the format. And the first reason it's awesome and special is it's multiplayer.
>> Yep. Magic is typically was made as a 1v one game. And when you sit down in a 1v one game, you're not there to chitchat.
You're there to play to win. um and you know do so usually in a more competitive way. Uh commander is way different because there are multiple players in the game minimum of two but usually closer to four but it can be three, can be five, can be up to 10 if you're absolutely crazy.
>> Mhm.
>> Um and some people do play commander 1v one as their main sort of thing. But usually there's another format within commander that's sort of like more specialized rules or a more specialized format that makes it again a little bit more competitive in its nature. There's plenty of people that play Commander 1 v one at their house with their partner, but uh it's it's more known as a multiplayer format. Uh plus there's some cool upsides to that. Different cards are great in commander than are great in 1 v one because there's more players. So cards scale in different ways and are more or less powerful.
>> Yep. And there's been a lot of cards designed specifically for Commander that are meant to be played in a multiplayer format that reference having multiple opponents or doing things to multiple players.
>> Yeah. commander in general is more about hanging out with a group of people rather than um honing your skills against one opponent.
>> Yep. And of course, you know, your mileage may vary depending on your play group, depending on what everyone is getting into. Sometimes groups scale in power and intensity, and other times groups go the opposite direction and decide to be more casual and fun.
>> All right. Uh the next upside to Commander is the games run longer, uh which means that you have more time to set up. That means you get to cast bigger and splashier spells. But basically, the rules of commander, multiplayer and singleton, which we'll talk about a little bit later. Plus, you have 40 life means that games are a little bit more flexible. You have to do more damage. Everything takes a little bit more time.
>> Yeah, if you're familiar with the board game world, you know, you can't sit down and play a game like Sellers of Katon in 10 minutes. You know, often times it takes a little bit longer and commander games are similar in that way because there are more players taking more turns, doing more things, taking more game actions. And as a result, you know, for a lot of people, this is a fun part of the game is that it's not sit down lightning fast and you're done with it.
Now, of course, the higher power level you go, the faster the games get. But in general, I would say on average, commander games are much longer than your regular game of Magic.
>> Yeah. That means you have a lot more opportunity to do big risky stuff, too, because you're sort of padded by having additional players and higher life totals.
>> Yep. Okay. Next up, commander is a highly personalizable. Personalizable.
Sure.
>> Yeah, you can personalize it.
>> You can personalize it. uh not like a purse that you carry around to carry things in, but personalizing as in you get to really custom tailor what your game is. Because the core of commander is choosing a creature, aka your commander, a legendary creature to sit in the command zone that really appeals to you or represents you and sort of why you love to play Magic or a way that you can express yourself that you really enjoy within the game itself.
>> Yeah. For example, one of my favorite commanders is a silly purple hippo that they made years and years ago, Feldri.
Mhm. Just very silly, very fun. And your whole deck is themed around it. There's only ponies and horses as creatures.
>> I've got a vibe and I know how to stick to it. And I like that I can build toward that vibe in Commander.
>> Yeah. And continue to update it as the game evolves and more cards are released. Uh I'm a big fan of any commanders that steal other things from opponents. That's just like a very fun thing to me. Now, other people don't see it quite as fun, but it's a theme that I've been able to build into many different decks over the years, and there always are new things and new ways of doing it that always make me sort of giggle on the inside cuz it's just so much fun.
>> Or maybe you really like a character from Marvel or Lord of the Rings. You can pick one of those out, build a whole deck around them, and get to play with them at your side.
>> Yep. And of course, it's endlessly inspiring to be at a table and see what everyone else has brought to the table as well. Um, just it's so much fun to see, oh, cool. this is what you're into right now. And oh wow, that really does match your personality. How fun that you're able to enact that dream and live it out with us playing this game.
>> Yeah. The other positive too, Commander, it is it has an enormous card pool. You can basically play with all of the cards ever printed. Uh and they don't rotate, so that doesn't really change.
>> Yeah. And that's actually kind of why the format started. The judges that's that created it were meant they wanted to play with a lot of the cards that weren't able to be really be played in the more competitive formats. And so it was this fun discovery process of like, "Oh, cool. I have this old collection or these old cards that I really loved growing up and here's finally a home for them to let them shine and again make me happy on the inside."
>> Yeah. There's also more viable strategies when you're playing with multiple uh with multiple opponents. So more cards that maybe didn't even see play in competitive play back when they were around could see play in commander because they're more powerful with multiple players.
>> Yep. And singleton is again a core reason why this format is really cool in that you cannot have duplicates of cards regularly in 1v one magic. You can play up to four copies of a card to have your deck be more consistent. And in commander it's like no no let's throw that out of the window for the most part and let's play with individual copies of cards. No duplicates except for the basic lands that help power your deck.
>> I love that if you have one expensive card that you like opened in a pack, you don't have to buy three more to make the deck with it. You just put the one deck card you have into your deck.
>> Yeah. Uh now there are cards you can't play. Uh some of the very very old cards that are super powerful like Black Lotus but also very inaccessible are not allowed. And there is a ban list which is pretty short uh given how many cards are available in the format. And bands are a pretty rare occurrence. So you don't have to be in fear of oh wow this really powerful strategy. I'm going to have a lot of the cards banned out from it.
>> Mhm.
>> Uh next commander is casual. There's just less pressure to get things exactly correct or build or play optimally. In fact, there's actually pressure, like social pressure to play in a more fun way and a more exciting way. I think most playroups are going to really push themselves towards something that they uh they enjoy in a more relaxed uh setting. Yeah, some of my favorite camerary memories are not about when I narrowly escaped death and pulled out a victory, but more about the silly funny thing that happened, the laughs that were had around the table, and just the overall experience of having that like, holy moly moment where everyone screams and throws their hands up in the air because something wild or crazy happened as opposed to, oh, that was the most strategically optimal thing to do in that moment, >> right? There's less emphasis on the rules and like super clean play. There's a lot of takebacks. There's a lot of like, oh, can I I missed that trigger?
Can I get That's all fine. We're hanging out.
>> Yeah. Uh now, of course, there are a lot of politics inherent to commander because there are multiple players around the table. And what you want to do is sometimes say like, "Hey, Rachel, uh if you just give me a little bit of immunity for a little bit or don't hit me with that thing, I can do something for you." Or like, "Hey, don't do this, otherwise I'm going to threaten you with this." And that sort of fun back and forth banter does not happen in 1 v one cuz you can't convince your opponent in a competitive format to not do something just cuz you >> just give me a turn and I'll do something cool.
>> Yeah. Yeah. please. Like that's not how it works. But politics is a big part of the game. We talk about a lot on the show and it's a reason why a lot of people love the game is because it's just an extra layer of fun, you know, and you know, Katon, again, another comparison for those that have played it. You're trying to trade resources and saying, "I'll give you this for that."
And so, Commander has a lot of that just inherent to the format.
>> Yeah. Not to mention, there's just no stakes for the vast majority of Commander players. You're just there to have a good time. And if you're not having a good time, you don't have to play anymore.
Yeah, >> there you're not trying to win a tournament. You're not trying to like um you know take down a prize money or anything like that. Uh there is of course competitive com commander. There is CEDH and then tournament CEDH which exists for those players, but that's a pretty small portion of the population.
>> Yeah. And if you want to find your way there over time, you absolutely will.
But again, for the most part, for the vast majority of commander games, it's about fun. It's about having again expression of yourself as well as your skill in the game and and doing fun things like politicking and all of that good stuff.
>> Finally, Commander is accessible. It is the most popular way to play Commander, which means there's good places to play Commander basically anywhere in the world. You can walk into any game store, they're going to know what Commander is, and they're going to be able to match you up with people who do play it. Go to game stores, go to your Magic Con, go to Command Fest, etc. So, there's tons of ways for you to just get a Commander game going.
>> Yeah, most uh game stores I've seen now have a dedicated night for Commander. Uh there's also like people that just say like, "Hey, let's gather at the local pub and play every Sunday or whatever it is." And so, there's tons of that. You can usually find groups on Facebook or Reddit or other social medias. And yeah, you will be able to find a game to play somewhere with new people or you can just make a group of friends that already are interested in playing Magic or your board game group can be verted over pretty easily, too. There's also precons that you can pick up that are good commander decks that you can buy and start playing. So, I would say that makes it accessible, too.
>> Yeah, you don't need to build a deck from scratch. There are tons of pre-constructed decks that are available that are pretty affordable and you can get going immediately and they're very viable and can hang with some really great decks, too, at the table.
>> Yeah. Well, hopefully that pitch uh sold Commander to you. You're probably already sold you're watching this video.
Uh but it's time to get into what makes commander well commander.
>> Yeah. But before we do so, you might need to also pick up some cards along the way, whether you're buying a precon or just singles to build out your new deck. So, head on over to cardkingdom.com/command.
They're our sponsor for the show. They help make our show and all the content that we create here on the channel possible because by supporting Card Kingdom, you're also supporting extra turns, game nights, this podcast, and of course, you're just getting the cards that you need. So whether or not you're going to be buying some new stuff coming up from the Marvel superhero set, The Hobbit, reality fracture, or you want to pick up a pre-constructed deck or sealed product to play with your friends to crack packs and have that experience for the first time, card kingdom.com/command is the place to go. They have this really cool deck builder as well on the website. So you can put your deck list into the deck builder and buy all the cards in one go. Get all the cards to your door in a convenient, nice package.
So yeah, support the show card kingdom.com/command.
>> And once you have your shiny new cards, you're going to have to keep them safe, protected, and organized. Go to ultraro.com/command and you are also supporting the show.
You can pick up sleeves and playmats, binders, deck boxes, dice, everything you need to accurately display your board, but also keep your cards looking cool and organized. Obviously, Magic cards can be expensive, so you want to trust the best to make sure your cards stay in good shape. Now, Ultra Pro has two sweet sleeve lines going on right now. Our favorite is Apex, as always.
Super high quality, really nice to shuffle. They're good art sleeves, but they also have well a relaunch of their favorite, like their beloved historical line, Eclipse sleeves.
>> Yeah, this is what we fell in love with originally when we were uh doing Ultra Pro promos, you know, four, five, six years ago.
>> And they're back and improved. They're black on the inside. They're solid colors on the outside. You know, your cards are never going to show through on the backside cuz they're just nice quality sleeves with a really great shuffle feel.
>> Yeah, they're awesome. I did a little promo for them as well and I got to shuffle them and they're they feel great.
>> They feel good.
>> All right, pick those up and support the show at ultpro.com/command.
>> And the last way to support the show is directly at patreon.com/commandzone.
That's where we have the most direct connection with our community. We talk to them on our Discord, which is accessible to all patrons. Uh you also get access at certain levels to exclusive content like turnt talk, which we do after every Extra episode of Extra Turns, where the players sit down and talk about the game that they just played. So you can hear about cool insights from the players, their strategies going into it, how they built their decks, and other cool things. But yeah, patreon.com/commandzone.
We also shout out one lucky patron every single episode. So this episode is dedicated to Ben >> Wro.
Wyros like a hero. No, gyro.
>> That's G.
>> Gyroscope.
>> Anyway, Ben, you rock.
>> All right, let's get into it. We're going to talk about the most important mechanical difference between commander and every other format. And it's >> the commander.
>> The commander, >> of course. So, this used to be called Elder Dragon Highlander. Uh because there were these cool elder dragons with a bunch of colors in it that you could only play. Those were the only cards you could play as your commander. And over time, that changed to be like, you know what? Any legendary creature can be in what you're called the command zone. And that's the big thing. And your deck is led by this leader/commander. It is what is representative of usually the strategy in your deck and it really is the way that you get to be like cool that's my chosen champion that's going to take that I'm going to choose and take into the battle with me.
>> Yeah. It's like you have your favorite fighter on Street Fighter or your champion in League of Legends >> or you just have like a way you like to play because that's your position in soccer. Commander really lets you do that. Say I want to play this kind of way with this kind of vibe and this guy, this character, this legendary creature matches that. Yeah, and they're all viable. You know, the the soccer goalie is a position you can kind of play in commander and in games with with defender cards, right? So, there's a lot of really fun ways to do that. Um, but the main thing that you have to do to get started is just choosing a legendary creature that speaks to you, that is of your essence.
>> Yeah, they all have different vibes.
They all do different things. A very popular commander right now is Miss Bumbleflower, and she's adorable and also very powerful.
>> Super powerful. So, if you if you like giving gifts to friends and whooping up on them while you do it, Miss Bumbleflower is great for you.
>> Yeah, a little rabbit that hops in the air and decimates your opponents, but also cast a ton of spells and gets a ton of value. Uh, there's also a fun one called Pant Laza, Sunfed, which is a dinosaur and yeah, you can play as dinosaurs in Commander. Uh, and this is all about just having a ton of value from other dinosaurs entering the battlefield and having them chain into other powerful spells. So, you're constantly bringing a horde of just nasty creatures and effects against your enemies.
>> Yeah. Uh maybe you're into some Universes Beyond or some alternate IP.
And Captain America First Avenger is your flavor. He's red, he's white, he's blue, and he throws equipment.
>> Like a shield.
>> Like a shield. How fun. Uh so that one's all about giving Cap powerful equipment and chucking them at your opponents.
Very perfect.
>> Tossing them. Yeah, there's tons of stuff in the world of uh of universes beyond which is a newer thing in Magic, but basically it's time for a lot of other universes that aren't magic specifically to join the Frey. So again, you can be playing as a card like Sauron, the dark lord from Lord of the Rings or uh like we just talked about.
Um yeah, so let's talk a little bit about the commander as a card. It is a special card. It has special qualities.
We're going to talk about them throughout this episode. Uh but it begins the game in the command zone uh that is separate from your deck. It is a special zone like your library or your graveyard, but only your commander goes in there and you can cast your commander uh at any time assuming uh you have the ability to cast a creature from the command zone.
>> Yeah, the format is called commander. So it would be silly if you didn't have access to your commander from the get- go. And the special thing about this command zone is that even if your commander dies or is removed or put somewhere else, you can put it back into the command zone and have access to access to it again. However, it's just going to cost you a little bit more mana and that's called commander attacks.
Yeah. So, the first time you cast your commander, you cast it for its mana value. If it dies, you can send it back to the command zone. And the next time you cast it from the command zone, it costs two more. Y pretty simple. Uh so, two the first time, then four the next time, >> then six, then eight, etc. Absolutely.
>> Yeah. The main thing is you always have access to your commander so that you're never dead in the water should your deck really hinge around that sort of ability your commander has.
>> There are some special kinds of commanders. Usually it is a single legendary creature in the command zone.
But different creatures have different abilities. So it is possible to have two commanders. For example, >> yeah, there's a great new commander duel. It's Michelangelo the heart and Leonardo the balance cuz they have the special wording on the bottom that says partner character select and so if another card has that text you can put them together so you can have any combination of the original turtles as or splinter yeah as well. So it's cool you can really feel you know if you're a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fan this is a great way to pair your favorite two turtles up together and have access to them and a special you sort of strategy that revolves around what they both can individually do. The next thing you could put in there is legendary vehicles or spacecrafts. Maybe you're a Final Fantasy fan and want to drive the regalia as your commander or Shorai as a legendary as a legendary vehicle.
>> Vehicle. Yeah. And of course, you have a Star Trek set coming out. So, you're probably going to be able to fly uh any of those legendary spacecraft as your commander as well, should you want to, you know, do that.
>> Absolutely. Uh there are some planes walkers that can go in the command zone as well. Those usually have the text specifically on them that allows them to be your commander, like Lord of Wind Grace.
>> Yeah. And so, you're going to have a lot of this uh they're continuing to innovate on this as the game progresses and evolves. So, there's going to be something special in new, I'm sure, in the future, but tons of options for commanders. You're never going to be stuck sort of like figuring out what to do. If anything, you're going to have too many choices to pick from.
Uh, so because you always have access to your commanders, you can reliably build around them knowing that you have a good chance to have access to them or have them on the battlefield. So, they're usually built around the special abilities or powers of their commander.
Let's uh talk about Kalia of the Vast, for example. Very popular commander, very powerful. It lets you play with giant dragons, demons, and angels and get them into play a little earlier than you should normally have them. Yeah, this is a classic way to play these cool, you know, some people are about just like giant dragons or giant angels or giant demons or maybe a mix of all three and the Cali of the Vast deck lets you choose which of the three combination that you want to have sort of featured in your deck. Uh, and of course the are these are cool scary creatures with huge abilities and the ability to really turn the tide of a game. So, it's a very appealing commander for that reason. Or if you like little tiny creatures, you could go with Chatterfang squirrel general, which is a token commander. That makes a lot of tiny things and a lot of squirrels.
>> Yeah, a lot of squirrels, tons of value, and you're doing things like making tokens, which is also an entire strategy in and of itself. Or maybe you love just slinging spells, casting a bunch of stuff. You're the type of mage that sits there and tosses four or five different things at your opponents in one turn that you can play Vivi or Nitiierre or Nitier uh which is a Final Fantasy character, a beloved Final Fantasy character and also just one of the most powerful cards ever made in Magic the Gathering.
>> Super powerful. Having your commander is the core of the format. It's the big decision that you make when you start playing commander is like, "Okay, who's my guy >> or girl or a thing or you know beast monster from the unknown that is squiggly armed and looks crazy like that are just Yeah.
>> Yeah. I mean, the cool thing about commander is you bring your own corner of the board. There's four players and you're like, "Okay, the vibe that I'm creating is Miss Bumbleflower, but I have three opponents that are going to bring different vibes." And we're going to see how those four decks interact with each other to create a really unique experience or board game style play. Yeah. And every game is unique. Uh because again, there's 100 cards in your deck. So, it's you never you might not see the same things twice in a row. And that is a big part of the fun of it is just sitting down seeing what everyone's bringing to the table and how you're going to try and win this game. Okay, those are the rules for the commander.
Let's talk about the rules for the deck.
And there's a couple different ones.
We're going to start with one that we've referenced a few times already.
Commander is a singleton format, specifically a 100 card singleton.
>> Yep. Which includes your commander. So, usually it's one commander and 99 cards in the deck. And except again for the basic lands, which is called your mana, which are like the fundamental building blocks of how you cast your spells. And so about 30 to 40% of your deck will be those types of lands and then the rest of it uh will be singleton cards.
>> Yeah. I mean singleton means every card in your deck uh is different. You can't have any kinds of duplicates except for those basics that Jimmy mentioned.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh but you can't have duplicate other types of lands special lands or lands that have a specific name out that that isn't you know plains, mountain, swamp, island or forest. The only exception to the singleton rule, of course, or if cards specifically allow you to break this.
Like Dragon's Approach says a deck can have any number of cards named Dragon's Approach in it. So, that lets you play as many Dragons Approaches as you want, but all the other cards in the deck have to be singleton. Yeah. And notably, it doesn't mean that you can't have cards that do the same thing. The text on the text box might be the same. As long as it's the name that is different, then you're allowed to have, you know, those, you know, it can't have the same named cards. again, unless it says your deck may have any number of cards named that thing, >> right?
>> Shadow of Born Apostles is another similar card that does that.
>> This uh may sound like a downside, may sound like a kind of a crazy restriction, but it actually adds to the fun and the sort of specialess of commander and it often leads to less optimization because you can't play four of the best version of an effect. You have to find four different versions that are similar but uh not exactly the same. So you get to see more cards and play with more different things and you get to play against more different things.
>> Yeah. So often times there's a lot of moments of discovery in a commander game. I've never seen that before. How cool. And a lot of people derive a lot of satisfaction from that. You might be the kind of person that loves finding obscure cards that no one's ever heard of. And bring them to the table and getting that reaction but also feeling the satisfaction of making them work within your deck and strategy.
>> Yeah. You also might get to create really weird scenarios where your single card combines strangely with your opponent's single card and you would have never seen that uh interaction coming. So, there's a lot of really exciting moments where you're just like, "Oh, whoa, what? I cannot believe that this is happening right now." But I think >> we both die.
>> Yeah. Or we both go to infinite life.
Something bizarre happens.
>> Something happens.
>> Yeah. But Singleton is is a really cool opportunity to play with all of the cards that you like. And again, you don't have to buy a ton of copies of the really expensive ones. You just need one.
>> Yeah. And even just this last week, Rachel and I were in a game that we both stepped away from and every player at the table went, "That was the coolest, weirdest game I played in a while or maybe even ever." And so that kind of thing happens quite frequently in Commander. And it's a really beautiful thing because, you know, if you played any game for a long time, sometimes it can grow stale. you're seeing the same things over and over again. Commander is one of those formats where that is very rarely a problem. Let's talk about the card legality. These are the cards that you're allowed to put in your deck. You have access to essentially every card throughout Magic's history. Of course, within your color identity, but we're going to talk about that in a moment.
Uh, which is over 30,000 unique cards. I did not realize we had crossed the cross the 30,000 threshold.
>> Yeah, we used to joke about 20,000 being the number or even like 15,000, but now we're at 30,000 now. Don't get overwhelmed. There are a lot of cards, a significant percentage of those cards which we'll never really see play because yeah, there, you know, they're very very normal or very lowowered and there's just other cooler options. But a lot of times some of those cards do make their way into decks like just your classic Grizzly Bear, which is just a two mana regular creature with no other abilities because there's a deck that just cares only about bears. Yep.
>> And it's just fun to play.
>> It's a special place for all 30,000 of those crazy cards. There are a few exceptions of course uh like we mentioned commander has a band list.
It's relatively short for the cart size of the card pool. These are cards that you cannot play will link uh to the ban list on the commander page. Um >> but you'll rarely run into that problem when building. There will be some cards and usually deck builder sites will be like this card you cannot play. It's banned. So they'll let you know. Yeah, they'll let you know. Uh there's also special silver bordered cards that were released that sort of have a lot of gags and jokes in them. You know, they have weird numbers like you like gain one and a half life or do you know pi damage 3.14 dam, right? Just like weird things that were meant for sort of the gag set that they came in that are not elite that are not legal in the set.
>> Yeah, those cards can be silver bordered. They can be marked with an acorn stamp in the bottom. And there's even play test cards that are not traditionally legal in commander. But if your play group is into it, you can kind of get away with whatever you want.
Yeah, there is there's a whole thing that we'll probably talk a little bit more about which is sort of a a discussion you can have prior to the game and you can be like, "Hey, my deck is actually built around this kind of weird thing. It's not super powerful, but it is super fun and I think it'll make for a fun experience. Can I do it?
Can I play it?" And a lot of times play groups will be like, "Of course, try it out."
>> Let's see. Yeah.
>> Uh there are some niche things that are not legal in the format. Uh conspiracies as a card type are not allowed. uh antique cards and there's a whole list of racially and culturally offensive cards that have sort of been cast off of uh Magic Play in general. So, uh all of those lists will be available uh with the ban list in the description.
>> Yeah. But chances are if you like a card, if something appeals to you and makes you go, "Wow, that's kind of cool." You can probably play it in commander and have fun doing so.
>> Yeah. And even if it's not that good, you have a hundred cards, so putting one unoptimized card in your deck isn't a big deal. You can put 99 unoptimized cards in your deck if you would like.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh but because there are tens of thousands of cards legal in the format, it is very common not to know them all in every single game that we're in. And we're some of the most invested commander players that exist.
>> You're still asking, "What does that do?
How is that worded? Uh how does that work with this?" There's questions all the time. So, you shouldn't feel uh overwhelmed. You shouldn't feel like a fish out of water. if you don't know all of them right away.
>> Yeah, it's very normal. And in fact, as the card pool gets bigger and bigger, this is closer to what Richard Garfield, who invented the game, his original intention was, which is you didn't know, you didn't have a website or a magazine that told you what all the cards were in the set. The discovery process of sitting down with someone else and having to play something that you've never seen before was sort of part of the original intention of the game. And we're kind of getting back to it in a weird way. And again, Rachel and I, Josh, all of us at the command zone are constantly going, "What does that do?
How is that worded? Sorry, I forgot about that card and its ability. Let me know how it works or can I read it?
>> Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, and if you want to learn more in a in a fun environment, the best way to learn about a lot of cards is to watch gameplay videos. There's a ton of commander gameplay online on our channel for with extra turns and game nights, but also shuffle up and play with a professor and commander at home. There's lots and lots of gameplay that's going to show you how different cards work and how different styles and play uh like archetypes work.
>> Yeah. and also how players engage with the game. Everyone has their own fun play style. You might find that you sort of associate yourself more with Brian Kibler's play style or Rachel's play style. And it's also a great way to be like, "Oh, cool. Now that I see how they play, I can also sort of learn from that or emulate that as I get into the game and not feel like I'm so intimidated by sort of what's happening." All right, we've got a few more rules to go through, but up next, we're going to talk about the most unique and sort of complex uh thing about Commander, but don't worry, we're going to break it down. We're going to explain it all to make it easy to understand. If you're feeling lost, of course, you can always leave a question in the comments below.
We're happy to answer them. Uh that we'll see them that way or you can send them at us on social media.
>> Yeah. Or the community that's in the comments. We usually have a great community of people there reading through the comments and answering questions as well. So, you'll get a lot of answers again and there's also Reddit social media like Rachel said where you can ask us questions or just see what other people are talking about the format.
>> Yeah. All right, we've got to take a short break to hear from our sponsors.
We'll be right back.
>> This message is sponsored by Raycon.
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>> Good morning, >> Josh. Josh, did you see what happened?
>> Yeah, about the one ring.
>> No, something else.
>> The union stuff.
>> No, the Pinkertons.
>> Dude, that was years ago. You got to check Reddit. When Magic News breaks, Reddit is the first place players go to talk about it. It's one of the biggest online magic communities out there, full of real players sharing their love of the game or sometimes other feelings about the game. My go-to subreddit is r/magictcg. You get reactions to big announcements, theories about lore and tips on everything from strategy to navigating live events. But I'll also just browse r/ gaming to check out new trailers, reviews, rumors, you name it.
Plus, there are subreddits for every genre, niche, or magic format out there.
So, whatever you like to play, there's a community where you'll fill right in.
Hey, did you guys see what happened?
Yeah, the Star Wars haul stamp. No, no, no. There's something else. What? Yeah.
>> All right. I got to download this app.
One of the best parts of Magic is sharing your excitement with the gathering. And Reddit is where players gather first to react, geek out, and share ideas. Whether you're gushing over new cards at r/magic tcg, speculating on lore at r/mtgorthos, or checking out trailers at r/gaming, Reddit is the hub where everyone can find their interests and their people.
>> Download the Reddit app and dive into r/magictcg for the latest gaming updates. Download the Reddit app today.
>> I think it might need more card draw.
>> Who are you talking to? Or is that just something you say?
>> Oh, no. I'm on a call with Jimmy. We're uh building a Chatter Fang deck.
>> Ooh, I just added Toasti. That should help, right?
>> Wa! The card just showed up.
>> Yeah, with Architect, you can collaborate in real time from anywhere in the world.
>> Changes show up immediately. You don't even have to reload the page.
>> So, it's perfect for brewing with a friend.
>> This is cool, but isn't Jimmy just upstairs?
>> Yeah, but I'm I'm downstairs right now.
>> I ain't coming downstairs.
>> Architect is the best place to browse, brew, and play test commander decks.
Just go to architect.com/commandzone to get started. That's a rheat.com/commandzone.
>> Welcome back everybody. We are talking about how to play commander and we teased something complicated and very very important. So let's talk about color identity. Yeah. So commander is special because you have this one card that leads the deck and it not only defines what your strategy is usually going to be, but also what colors you are restricted to or allowed to play. So that's way you can't just play any commander and have access to all 30,000 cards that are legal. It often is a smaller version of that because your commander is a specific color or a color identity. And that also says, "Hey, these is this is what you're allowed to play with. These are I think about it like if you look at Captain America, for example, Cap uses red, white, and blue tools. He doesn't know how to use black or green tools. So of course, you can't use black or green cards. Uh he's the captain of these colors and can't dip into other things." Yeah. And it makes the game again more thematic because restrictions breed creativity and they also make for a more fun experience because again you're not allowed access to everything. So it's you're just like oh just play the best things etc. Okay this can get a little bit complicated and there are several exceptions to the rule. We're not going to go through all of them. We're just going to try and give you a basic understanding. So let's start with the basic idea. You can only play cards that are either colorless or are contained within your commander's color identity.
>> Yep. And identity. color identity is different than actually the color of the card, which sounds crazy and doesn't make sense, but a card can be a color but have text within it that also adds other colors. So that color identity is the combination of all of the colors found on the card. All right, let's talk about color first. Uh color is usually found in the top right corner of the card. And we're going to use Chatterfang, the one that makes squirrels, as an example to talk about color identity. Oh, in the top right corner of Chatterfang is a green mana symbol. Chatterfang is a green card.
>> Yep, the card is green all around if you look at it.
>> There are some exceptions to the color rule. Like for example, Rog Rock, Son of Roga, doesn't have a color mana pip in the top right because his mana cost is zero, but he does have a color indicator which is there on the type line. That little red circle.
>> Mhm.
>> That says he's red.
>> Yeah. And of course, the card itself is red if you just need a more immediate way of looking at. That little dot next to the words of legendary creature cobalt warrior is where it indicates that this is a a red card because this is just one of these weird weird exceptions.
>> Yeah, we're not going to go super deep into exceptions right now. Uh you'll learn as you play. Don't sweat it.
>> Yeah. So, as for the rules of Magic, Chatterfang is considered a green card as the color of the card. Not necessarily color identity, but a green card as this is the card's color. Okay, color identity is a little bit different. Remember this is unique to commander only. No other formats really well brawl but brawl is based on commander um use this but it is like Jimmy said the combination of all of the mana symbols on the top right in the mana cost or in the rules text. Yep.
That isn't yet. Now there are some exceptions to this as well but in general you can look at Chatterfang and if you look all the way at the bottom it has an ability that has the black mana symbol in there. So now you can say, "Oh, Chatterfang is a green and black card in terms of its color identity."
>> That means that in a Chatterfang deck, so Chatterfang is your commander, you can play cards that are green, black, green, black, and colorless.
>> Yep. You can't play cards that are blue, white, or red. So cards that may be really fun and thematic with your squirrel commander, like so shiny, which has a squirrel on it, is not available to play in the deck, even though it is a squirrel card.
>> Yeah. Helica Glider can't go in your deck either. But don't worry, there's lots of squirrels inside of green and black. Yep.
>> You also cannot play cards that only overlap with part of the color identity.
So, Wander Tale Mentor, which has a red and green color identity, is not contained within Chatterfang's green and black color identity. It can't play red cards.
>> Yep. So, the lands that you play in your deck, again, this is how you power out your spells, also have color identities, and they're also determined by the mana symbols that you find in the card. So, in a card like Sunpal Grove, it says tap, add green or white. So, the color identity of this land is green and white. So, you can't play this in Sharang because the color identities don't match. Yeah. Similarly, you can't play basic land types outside of your commander's color identity. So you can't play plains or islands in a Chatterfang deck or mountains. Yeah, >> but that also includes non-basics. So something like Temple Garden doesn't have any mana symbols on it technically, but it is an plains, so it can't go into Chhatterfang. And next up, there are colorless cards. So typically these are cards that are gray around the border or brown sort of in older formats, older cards. Uh but they also have a color identity similarly determined by the color man symbols in the text. So, Simic signate is a card that says tap pay one add green and blue. So, the color identity is green and blue and though thus cannot go in Chatterfang.
>> Yeah. Even though it's colorless on the outside, it still has those color pips in the text. So, you can play Soul Ring or Talisman of Resistance because those mana pips match the ones in Chatterfang.
>> Yeah. And again, this is seems like a lot to take in, but it makes sense.
Also, you're not going to be playing cards outside of the color identity. So, you don't need a land or a uh a artifact that adds colors that aren't in your uh commander's color identity.
>> Yeah. And keep in keep in mind this only affects deck building uh not gameplay.
So, Chatterfang in the game is a green creature, but color identity is a deck building restriction and a deck building uh rule. So, keep it in mind only before the game when you're putting your deck together.
>> There are cards that care about the color of the card. Like something might say destroy target green creature and that is Chatterfang. But if it said destroy target black creature, that wouldn't work because Shatterfang is a green color card, but the color identity is different than that. That's again just for deck building. Okay, we're going to continue to talk about color identity and a couple of different uh tricky use cases. But the TLDDR on color identity is if you don't see a color pip that doesn't fit within the color pips that are on your commander, you can't play it.
>> Yep. Yeah. So again, look for the color identity. See if it all matches up or fits within it. And if it doesn't, sorry, can't do it.
>> All right, let's talk about hybrid mana because this can be a confusing one.
>> Yeah. So, there are some cards that have a mana symbol that actually has two different colors in it.
>> Uh, which is uh we'll just take a look at one on the screen now. Cure Behemoth Becker. It's two and then a single circle that has both a green and a blue mana symbol in there.
>> Yeah. So, for color identity, this hybrid mana symbol counts as both green and blue. So, Kiora Behemoth Beckner's color identity is green and blue and can't go in your chatterfinding deck.
Yep. And again, an easy way to tell for a lot of these cards is look at the border of the card. It's green on one side and blue on the other. So, okay, I get it. The color of the card is green and blue. And thus, this cannot go in Shatterfang, even though it might look like it can.
>> Yeah. Uh, another example is Luris of the Dream Den. This has hybrid white and black in its mana cost. She cannot go in a commander that whose color identity doesn't include both white and black.
And if she's in the command zone, you can have access to both white and black cards because her color identity is both.
>> Is both. Okay, that covers hybrid mana.
Um, now let's talk about the words in a text. Mhm.
>> So sometimes a card will not have a mana pip in the in the text, but it will have the word of the color and uh that doesn't make it that color cards doesn't change its color identity. So So for example, Skyclave Apparition says uh when it leaves the battlefield, the exiled card's owner creates an XX blue illusion creature token, but it's a white card and it has a white color pips in uh in its mana cost. Its color identity is just white even though it makes a blue token.
>> Yep. Which is a little confusing, but again, it just says the word blue and it doesn't have the mana pip. You're looking for the mana pip when determining color identity. Another card like Farsek says, "Search your library for a plains, island, swamp, or mountain card. Put on the battlefield tap, then shuffle." It only says the name of the card. Uh it does not say it does not say uh put a colored mana symbol in the text. So, it is not anything but green.
It's just a green card color identity wise. This is a little confusing, but this does include fetchlands. So, if you look at Flooded Strand, Flooded Strand says, "Tap, pay one life, and sacrifice Flooded Strand. Search your library for a Plains or Island card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle." Look at the rules text on this. And nowhere does it have any color pips. So, technically, Flooded Strand could go in any deck, even your Chatterfang deck if you really wanted to, although it wouldn't really do anything for you. Yeah, you can't find a plain or island in the deck because those cannot be in your deck.
So, but you could play it. It would be a legal thing, but it would just be a card that said, "Play this land and then lose a life and do nothing."
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Probably probably not worth playing, but uh you could play a um you could play a marsh, for example, that can find a plains or a swamp if you had wanted more fetch lands to be able to find more swamps. You just don't have any planes in your decks.
>> Okay. Uh now, this is all very complicated, so let's have a little pop quiz, hot shot.
>> Okay. and look at some commander cards and see if you can figure out what color identity they are. Let's start with an easy one. This is Ren and Siri inseparable.
So, if you add up all of the color pips on this card, the total color identity is red, green, and white. This is a NIA card. Yep. And you'll see in the text, it also has red, green, and white. But it doesn't matter because all of the colors are already present in the casting cost in the top right. It doesn't add any new colors.
>> So, you can play red cards, green cards, white cards, and colorless cards.
>> Yep. And a lot of dogs and cats.
>> All right. This next one is a little bit trickier. This is Hasheton Scarab's Fist. Yep. It has white and black in the top right. And then in the text, it says, "Whenever you discard a creature card, you may pay two and a blue." And then a bunch of other text. It says, "If you do create a card that has a copy of that card, except it's a 44 black zombie." Okay, so we're adding up the mana symbols in the rules text and in the mana cost. That means that the color identity of Hasheton is white, black, and blue. This is an Esper commander.
>> Yep. And even though at the very end of the card it says 44 black zombie, if it said 44 green zombie, that doesn't change the color identity because it doesn't show the mana pip.
>> Okay, let's talk about some partner commanders. So, this is two commanders in the command zone that work very well together. It's Froto, Adventurist Hobbit, who's white and black, and Sam, Loyal Attendant, who's green and white.
>> Yep. So, they're partners together in the command zone, which means their combined color identity is white, black, and green. You can play all three colors in this deck. Yep. And if you look into the text of both of them, there is no point where you see other color pips.
You see some activated costs and some mana abilities, but there is no color pips. So, all of the color identity is contained in the top right of these cards. All right, this last one is a little bit tricky. This is Essica, God of the Tree. This is a special card that has two sides to it. So on the front side, it says one green, green, and a creature with a bunch of text. And then at the bottom left of that card, it has the words enchantment and then white, blue, black, red, green, which means that you can choose to cast it on either side. There's a lot of cards that are flip cards, cards with two sides on them, and they all have different rules text about how they work, but in this case, this is a card that simply has a front side and a back side, and both of them have mana color identity. Yeah.
When there's a front and a backside, you combine the mana symbols on both sides to make the card's color identity, which means Esica's color identity is all the colors. White, blue, black, red, green.
>> Yep. It doesn't matter which side you play it on. The card does count as both when considering its color identity.
>> Okay, that covers deck building. Those are the deck building uh rules for that.
But if you want advice on how to actually make the best choices when you're building a commander deck, we've got lots of episodes that go over different heruristics that you should know when you're building for commander.
But the most important one you should check out is the commander deck building for a new era episode where we go through a deck building template that recommends uh the number of lands you need, the number of card draw cards you need, the number of uh ramp spells you need, and removal. Uh but go check that one out. The link will be in the description. And again, if you don't want to jump into deck building immediately, maybe that's not your jam.
Uh there are pre-constructed decks where you don't have to worry about any of it because they've already made sure that the rules are abided by.
>> All right. Uh let's move on to gameplay rules because there's some weird ones for commander as well. We're going to start with the multiplayer rules. These are rules because commander has more than two players. So, normally when you're playing 1v one, you use a London mulligan where you start with seven cards in your hand. If you don't like that seven, you can shuffle it into your deck. You draw a seven and put one back.
>> If you don't like that one, you draw another seven. Shuffle your deck, draw another seven, then put two back on the bottom. So, it gets worse and worse the more you have to do it.
>> In 1v one, you don't draw if you're the player who went first, but you do if you're the player who went second, and you traditionally have 20 life.
Commander rules are very different from that because of those extra players.
>> Yep. We also have the London mulligan, but everybody gets a free uh mulligan.
>> Yeah. So, you don't have to put a card back if you didn't like your first hand.
You're allowed to get one free one at the beginning. And you don't actually even have to shuffle the cards back in your library. A lot of players because you're dealing with shuffling 100 cards.
We just take the next seven off the top.
Uh so, it's again a bit more casual, a bit more flexible, and you get one free one at the beginning because there are so many cards and the variance in your deck is a little bit higher.
>> It's so casual that a lot of play groups don't even play with mulligan rules.
They'll let you mulligan as many times as you want to get a playable hand. Y >> but again, that's something you can determine with your play group.
>> Yep. And everyone does draw on their first turn of the game, including the player that went first. And instead of starting at 20 life, you all start at 40 life.
>> That's a lot of life.
>> Yep. But it doesn't mean that there aren't ways that you can get out of the game early if someone kills you with a special thing called commander damage.
>> Yeah. So again, because your commander is the focal point, a lot of early decks in the in the format were all about making your commander the one buffest, scariest thing on the table and then just one-shotting someone because if your commander card does 21 combat damage to another player, that player immediately dies.
>> Yeah. Note, this is only combat damage.
You have to hit them in battle. It's not something like if you if they have an ability that lightning bolts them like Ren and Siri, that doesn't count for commander damage.
>> Yep. and it's tracked according to each individual commander card. So even if your commander dies and goes back to the command zone, it's still the same card that was doing combat damage to the other players. So that can come right back out and keep adding on and getting to that 21. If you have partner commanders, if you have two commanders in your command zone, those commander damages are tracked individually because it's tied to the physical card. So, if you do like 10 damage with Frodo and you do 12 damage with Sam, that is not enough to knock somebody out with commander damage, an individual card needs to do the 21. Yep. And of course, commander damage doesn't stack with other players dealing commander damage to you in terms of counting it. So, for instance, I have a card and I hit Josh Lee Quai with it. It's a tally. This is a seven seven that deals seven damage to it. And then, uh, someone else uh hits Josh with their commander, Shogunar, which is a 66. That's your commander, I suppose, Rachel. Now, those two pieces of commander damage aren't added together. You don't have 13 total on Josh. You have one card that did seven and another that did six. They're tracked separately. They don't combine.
>> Yeah. And that can be built up throughout the game. You don't have to do it all in one big hit. If you hit somebody three times with a tally, that's enough to knock them out on throughout the entire game.
>> Yeah. And then the damage is again tied to the physical card. So, let's say someone steals my Italy and they take it onto their board state and then they also decide to hit Josh with it. Good idea, by the way. Now, that actually will combine because it's tied to the physical card. So, Josh will have 14 total commander damage from my Italy.
>> Now, let's say you make a token copy of your Itali, which you absolutely wouldn't do cuz that's super disgusting.
>> But someone else might make a copy of it on their board state and they hit Josh Lequ with it. that is still not added to the total commander damage that Italy has done because it's not attached to the physical commander card of Italy.
>> Yep. Now, uh if you somehow flip over the card or modify it or change uh the way that the card is like a for instance has a backside that is again still dealing commander damage because it's the same physical card that did so.
>> And again, we want to reiterate this is just combat damage. Like a VV or ornate does not deal commander damage when you cast spells. That would be crazy.
>> Yeah, that would be crazy. You would end the game really fast.
>> Okay, those are the rules for commander.
Uh there are a few more things that we're going to talk through in this episode to give you a good idea of uh how the format uh changes, how you build, and how you play. But those are basically the rules. Again, you can ask us any questions that you have in the comments below or on social media.
>> Yep. Okay. Now, let's talk a little bit more about some of the intric intricacies of Commander. And one of the main things is building for multiplayer.
So again, Commander is a multiplayer format. It's way less cutthroat than 1v one where the card quality changes because now you're only dealing with one opponent and when you pass the turn, you only have to wait one turn before it gets back to you as opposed to commander, which is a bit bit of a longer stretch between your turns.
>> Okay, so one of the best parts about commander is for me is that you get to build your own decks. You get to customize something that you love and you designed to work against your friends. Um, there's a lot of different tips and tricks for how to do this.
Well, again, we post episodes about this like all the time.
>> All the time. It's one of the main things we talk about like all the time we talk about deck building. So, if you really want to hone your skills, you can go back and watch a large bank of uh episodes about it. But, we're going to go through a couple of like short tips to keep in mind uh right now.
>> Yeah. So, one thing is looking out for cards that specifically uh say each opponent instead of target opponent or or each upkeep as opposed to one your upkeep. Uh because cards like that when you have three other players at the table do three times as much. Yeah. For example, Braze Arnen Nightmare says at the beginning of your end step, you may sacrifice an artifact, creature, enchantment, land, or planaineswalker.
If you do, each opponent may sacrifice a permanent of their choice that shares a card type with it. For each opponent who doesn't, that player draws >> that player loses two life and you may draw a card.
>> Yeah.
>> So, in 1v one, braids can really only draw you one card, assuming your opponents don't sacrifice a thing. Uh, but in multiplayer, you could draw up to three cards off of a braids trigger.
Yeah. And there's often a card type that only you have that or is more rare, like enchantment. So, you're guaranteed to be getting some value off. And if not, you're disrupting the table on in a larger way because each opponent has to deal with this choice. Cards like tendershoot dryad are a lot better too because it says at the beginning of each upkeep create a one- one green sapperling creature token. So in 1 v one there's only two upkeeps you could be making sapperlings but in commander there's often four.
>> Yeah. So more players these cards scale even better uh because again they start affecting more and more people. Again, higher value higher mana value cards are more likely to get cast in commander because the games run a little bit longer and because attention is split.
So, your curve doesn't necessarily need to be as low or as efficient as it needs to be in 1v one. You could play seven drops in your deck and reasonably cast them. It happens all the time.
>> Yeah. more life, more players means there just is more time for you to get set up, more time for you to stay alive and uh get to this sort of later game state or more time to get yourself more mana by doing crazy cool rampy things.
Yeah, a mana ramp and card draw are a lot more important than in commander than they ever are in 1 v one because the early part of this game is all about setup. You only need to do 20 damage in 1v one. So, you don't need a ton of setup to get 20 damage done. But in commander, you have three opponents and they all have 40 life. So you have 120 damage you need to be doing. That requires a little bit of setup across the table. Yeah. Right. Uh there's tons of episodes as well on the ratios of cards that you're supposed to be playing because this is a difficult thing. How many lands am I doing? How many of this type of spell? How many creatures? And again, we've done tons of episodes, commander deck building ones. And again, just check the show notes for those to go to if there's a specific thing that you're looking for more help with.
>> Another tip is instance become a lot better. Yes, >> like when you only have one opponent that has a turn to to change how things go. Uh, a sorcery is fine because you're only sort of um fading something going wrong on one opponent's turn. When you have three opponents, a lot can happen before it comes back to your turn. So, having mana open, staying flexible, and being able to react as the game develops becomes much more important.
>> Yeah. So instance, which allow you to react at instant speed, wait to sort of position yourself to do something get much better. Uh, now using one for one removal is usually something that's much better in 1v one cuz it's just you and against your opponent. And it's still very necessary in this format. So you might think, oh, I only want cards that deal with multiple things all the time.
But no, you actually still want 1v one stuff because sometimes it is very important to disarm someone or stop something from happening that is threatening to just win the game on the spot or do something very damaging to you personally. Yeah, absolutely. So, one v one uh one for one removal is still good and necessary, but you have to be a little bit more careful about how you spend it. You want to spend it more to only disrupt things that are affecting you personally.
>> Yeah. Or again, are threatening to win the game.
>> That too.
>> Uh but that also makes multiple for one removal really good in multiplayer. So, board wipes, cards that say destroy all creatures or all of this one thing, >> each player sacrifices a card.
>> Yeah. Is going to Yeah. make a bigger difference because then now you're doing three players with multiple things on their board instead of just one opponent.
>> It's also worth noting that a few strategies that are very good in 1v one just aren't as viable in multiplayer.
Just pure aggro decks are not as good because again 20 life is very different from 120 life.
>> Yeah. And you might be trying to end the game in four to five turns with a 1v one deck that's aggressive. Whereas in commander once you're going to nine plus turns it gets a lot more difficult for you to close out the game as an aggressive deck. Mill is another strategy that gets a lot harder because decks are bigger and you have more opponents. Uh so some strategies are a little bit more challenging, but that's kind of the fun of them.
>> Yeah. And not to mention, if you do something like Mill, sometimes players really don't like that and they'll just team up on you. And when you have three players trying to kill you and take you out because you're emptying their libraries with Mill, it's going to be much harder to enact certain types of strategies. Uh so keep that in mind. Uh because again, you're playing multiplayer, which is the next subject that we're going to be talking about here. Multiplayer magic is very different than single player magic.
>> Yeah, you could do something in a multiplayer game that suddenly makes you the threat and three players decide to team up and take you out.
>> Yikes.
>> So, timing your plays and timing when you become the problem at the table is a huge part of the strategy of commander.
>> Yeah. In 1v one formats, you're not saying, "Oh, who should I kill first or what should I deal with first at the table? There's a lot of interesting options." It's no, you're focused on one player sitting across the table and as a result, it's much easier to know where to go with your attacks and your removal.
>> And sometimes you can get your opponent's things on your side.
Sometimes your opponents having a big powerful thing is good for you if you know how to use politics well.
>> Mhm. Yeah. Teaming up, deflecting or saying, "Hey, you know, let's work together for a turn. We have shared interests uh can really tend to lead in your favor if you're doing it right."
>> Yeah. Yeah, in 1 v one there's very little discussion as to, you know, what's the problem and who should we take out and how do we uh use our resources and like there's very little mechanical discussion. It's more about what are you doing? What does that say?
How do I like all right, I'm going to do this. Uh and in commander, it's a lot more uh open-ended because you're at times you're working with other players to take down somebody who's in a better position than you both.
>> Yeah. And if you're confused about what's going on or you need some help, you can just also ask the table like, "Hey, what does everyone think is the threat here because I don't actually know." Now, of course, buyer of aware, everyone's going to be answering in their own best interest. Uh, very rarely will someone go, "Well, well, it's clearly my creature." They'll try and point it somewhere else, but you'll have two other players to sort of keep them in check. But again, because it's a more casual social format, a lot of these sorts of things are usually a part of the game and make it a lot more friendly for new players as well. Yeah, you can always discuss your plays with your opponents. You could deflect uh attention onto a much scarier creature that you're afraid of. You could convince someone to do something or to not do something. Uh as long as you uh place your words very carefully.
>> Yeah. And as I learned on the playground as a very young kid, uh sometimes it's best to make friends with the scariest player at the table because they're going to help you out more than the other players who are currently struggling against them.
>> Very annoying.
>> Very annoying. It's so effective. very effective because the person that's the best player also wants more friends cuz they don't want everyone to team up on them. So yeah, there's always sort of fun stuff like that where you can take real life lessons and things you've learned, apply them in the game, and see how they work. Sometimes your strategies will fall flat in their face. Other times it'll be so effective that you'll wish you knew about it earlier.
>> Yeah. And politics is a little bit different at at every table. Uh some play groups will engage with a lot of politics and make heavy deals. Some of them really won't use it at all. So, that's a tone that you can uh determine once you find a play group or you sit down at a table with new players. Yeah.
Uh it's a good thing to know uh how people are going to respond if you want to offer a deal.
>> Yeah. And things will change too. I've had a lot of play groups that start off very political and over time get less and then, you know, a new player enters the frame and all of a sudden it's right back to the politics again. So things like that can evolve and that's a big part of the fun of finding a play group that you really jive with. I would also say that like playing optimally, like doing the strict best thing for you is not often the right thing in commander because it can put you it can make you the threat at the wrong time. It can upset somebody sort of in a disproportionate way and cause major problems for you down the line. So, you do have to determine the social ramifications of what you're doing when you're doing it.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh especially if like your play group is the type of playgroup to hold grudges.
Oh yeah, you did this to me last time.
I'll never forget it. Or, hey, you backed out on a deal after we had a handshake agreement. Uh, you're going to you're going to pay for that.
>> All of this can come up in games down the line. Whereas, if you're playing one v one, that's not necessarily going to happen.
>> Yeah. So, politics are great because you can sort of turn the tide uh in your favor u that has nothing to do with the cards on the table, but rather the relationships that you form in the game or the threats you can make. Uh, and that's a great way to sort of balance out the power level. But again, power level is actually one of the big things about commander that is quite difficult because you have access to all the cards in the history of magic. And depending on your budget/ time you've spent building your deck and perfecting what you're doing, you can throw this out of balance because some power levels may be way higher than others or way less. So balancing power level is another big part of what makes commander special and when done right can really make the game really fun. Yeah, I mean a commander deck can look like anything from like a welloiled F1 racing machine to a scraped up big wheel that's held together with duck duct tape. Both of those are completely valid commander decks and are played frequently around the world. So, uh, when you sit down for a game, an important thing that you have to do is just discuss what kind of game everyone at the table is interested in having because when games are more balanced, they're more interesting. They're more fun when everybody has an equally good roughly equally good chance to win the game. Yeah, >> like I said, if you're in an F1 car and you're racing big wheels, you're like, "Yeah, of course I was going to win this game."
>> Yeah, of course I was going to win this unless I catastrophically have a catastrophe and crash on the side of the road because of some major misplay or, you know, don't keep a really bad opening hand or whatever.
>> Yeah, but like >> there are the hair. Yeah, there are tortoise and the hair scenarios. I'll just say that much. Uh, but generally, yeah, before you play the game, make sure everyone is in for the same type of experience. Hey, we're all racing big wheels today. Or hey, bring out your F1.
Let's go for a highowered speed race and see who can win uh in that setting and scenario.
>> Try and have a discussion before the game. Find out what kind of decks everybody's playing with and see if it'll be a good fit for you. But I would say when in doubt, just play.
>> Mhm.
>> Uh power imbalances can often be overcome with politics. There's multiplayer, so the table can correct for it where they're like, "Well, this person's clearly in the head. the three of us are going to have to team up to try and take them down.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh >> and that's a very common flavor in games which is everyone deciding, oh, we got to take care of this. And so that again becomes part of the fun is that sometimes you don't want to get so far ahead that that happens.
>> And if there is a power imbalance, be patient. Uh everybody's doing their best to try and balance the communication is a really difficult thing. And if the game didn't meet the expectations that you had, you can communicate that or you can find another group.
>> Yeah. And there's plenty of other groups to find. Or you can again just communicate within the group being like, hey, you know, I joined this group and I want to play with you all. It would be lovely if we can find a way to make sure the games are a little more balanced because it's my first time. Or >> I'm trying.
>> Yeah, I'm trying. Or maybe you can borrow a deck and if you need to play on that level or other players can usually usually players have a selection of decks all the way from their sort of more big wheels duct tape deck to the F1 racing car. Over time, as you build more and as you play more, you will do a better job of evaluating your opponents and your own deck's power level. You're going to recognize patterns, you're going to understand what is too powerful and what is just right. So, be patient with yourself, be patient with your opponents. It's going to take a little bit of time to get a decent balance, but there are some new tools to help you find it.
>> Yes. Fortunately, this conversation has been abetted by something called Commander Brackets, which is a new system that's still in beta, but it's quite uh I know it's very well used, I'd say, now and and the the language of it is really great and really helps you make sure that you're entering at the same power level to have a fun balanced sort of experience or at least close.
Yeah. Uh, this was designed by the Commander Format Panel, which is a group of uh, magic creators that work together to try and make good tools for the format and help Wizards of the Coast make good decisions for the format.
Yeah.
>> So, the brackets are made up of five brackets. We're going to do a quick run through now. Uh, obviously, we're not going to go in heavy detail. Bracket one is highly themed decks uh, with little mechanical synergy. So, it's mostly about like this is all pictures of horses. Yep. This is uh all the cards.
All of the cards are from Avatar the Last Air Bender.
>> All the cards in my deck have hats on because I think hats are really funny and silly.
>> Yep. Bracket two is lower power decks designed for long games and splashy plays. This is the bulk of where Magic players sit. Uh is bracket two. These are games that can go 10 turns where you're casting huge haymakers and usually there's not like a ton of heavy disruption in them.
>> Yep. Bracket three are decks that are more upgraded uh with a focus on having more powerful staples cards that you see uh more frequently in sort of the this this higher power level and synergies.
Your decks are uh they work really well together. All the cards really are synergize with each other and the strategies are also typically on the more powerful side. So my token strategy, my aristocrat strategy, um they also contain cards that we'll talk a little bit called about later I think called game changers. So, these are cards that are so powerful that they literally quite do shift the momentum and tide of a game when played. Uh, and you don't see these at lower bracket levels because that again, those games aren't quite about playing these sort of haymaker cards.
>> Yeah. Uh, bracket four is optimized decks where they focus on efficiency and consistency. So, these decks are uh usually brewed by the pilot designed to go as fast as possible. Take every um uh take an archetype that that player really likes and push it to its most extreme. Mhm.
>> And then there's bracket five, which is competitive decks. This is CEDH. They're decks designed to win in only the most optimized environments. So the decks going as fast as possible with the most expensive cards and the best strategies is where CEDH lives. If you're playing in a tournament, it's likely a CEDH tournament.
>> Yeah. And these games typically commander games are anywhere between sort of six and nine turns. CEDH games can end on turn one or turn two with a good hand.
>> With a good hand. Yep.
>> Uh so the brackets will restrict certain types of cards and strategies to certain power levels. We're going not going to go through all of those restrictions in this episode, but if you want to learn more about the brackets, uh we have done an episode on it. We'll again link that in the description. But you should know about the game changers. That's a list of uh roughly I think it's 60ish cards that are very powerful. Not banned in the format, but you should know how powerful they are. And at bracket three, you're limited to three of them. and brackets higher than that, you can have as many of as you want. Below that, you can't have any of the the cards on the game changanger list. So, it's sort of like a soft band list.
>> Yeah, soft band list, but more like a more of a restricted list because these cards when they do come down quite literally do change the game. Uh, and of course, this is an optional tool. You don't have to use it if you don't want to. But we've just found that having a shared language to be able to talk about your decks really quickly instead of saying they're in sort of describing each of the intricacies about how it works makes it a lot easier just to get into the game and make sure that everyone's sort of around the same power level and can have a more fun and balanced experience.
>> Okay, the next question we want to answer is where do I play?
>> Good question.
>> There's a lot of different places that you can play Commander. Like we said, it's extremely popular. Your LGS, your local game store is a great place to start. Often there are commander nights where you can show up with a deck and they'll put you into a pod.
>> Yep. Uh uh most frequently I found are game nights. So nights that are organized by friends that let's say you have a weekly recurring board game night. Well, this weekend or week we do weekday we are playing commander instead. Uh so it's friends at a house or an apartment or a public place like a pub uh or like even a park I've seen people playing at um that you can attend. it's easier to sort of also filter in newer players because it tends to typically be a little more casual if it's like a bigger game night. Um, and you know, these are players that love the game so much that they're willing to stay at their homes and host party nights to play at it. So, I found that these groups of people are also more amendable to take back seas or more of a casual environment, especially for newer players that they want to welcome into the game and bring back to the next game night. There's commander meetups all around the world whether it's a commandfest and a magicon like a huge organized event or there's local meetups uh if you reach out to uh if you find a discord a local discord or if you there's um >> uh like groups that'll meet at the library or at your game store that kind of thing. So keep an eye out for commander meetups in your area and that'll be a good place to play as well.
>> Yep. I've also found Reddit can be a good place for that as well. Um, yeah.
So, great way to easy easily find games.
Uh, it's it's quite easy. It's not as intimidating as you might think. You just got to look.
>> What about online?
>> Online, yeah, so online, unfortunately, doesn't support multiplayer with the official clients. Uh, for the most part, Arena does not support multiplayer. Now, MTGO, which is a very dinosaur outdated client, uh, does support multiplayer, but it is quite clunky, and the way to acquire cards is also quite difficult if you've never done it before. It's not as easy as sort of buying a precon and sitting down to play. Uh so we don't really recommend it. Again, arena is a great way to learn how to play commander. And if you're really thirsting to play online for MTGO, you can do so. But there actually is a different way that is webcam commander.
>> So if you have a webcam that can point down at your playmat and a microphone, uh you can play on something called spell table, which is the most common and accessible way to play. um you're basically connecting with three other players and you're using your webcams to play the game. Now, this >> they'll put you into a lobby and you can play with random players around the world.
>> Yeah. But there's also tons of Discords and online communities that have more consistent play groups or maybe even your play group uh in your wherever you live plays on Spell Table because it's just more easy to play that way and and jam some games out quickly instead of having to drive to someone's house or go to a sort of a local game store to do it. So, if you just Google Spell Table Discord, you can usually find a lot of groups that are, you know, posting, hey, looking for a game at bracket 3 and you can find that game more quickly and oftentimes build friends with the people in those communities.
>> Yeah. Or if you have a friend that like plays commander but doesn't live in your city. It's a good way to connect with them regularly and uh play some magic.
Yeah.
>> I would say if you're playing on spell table, you probably want to avoid cards that steal things from players decks uh like opposition agent or like look at their hand to reveal information. It just gets kind of complicated to resolve over uh visual.
>> Yeah. If you're taking cards from someone else, they have to place their card off their playmat and you have to make a token of it of some sort to represent it. And remember, it's a real card and on token right. So, it's more difficult to play those types of decks.
But, I found that spell table is one of the fastest ways to test out a new deck or just get a fast game in. And if you're down for that kind of gameplay, it's definitely a lot of fun. Um, it's not really my cup of tea, but if, you know, in an alternate world where maybe I didn't have access to a game store or an office where I can play with people, I would be using Spell Table much more.
>> All right, the next question we want to answer is, where do I learn more about Commander in general? This is just the tippy tippy tops of the iceberg. Yeah.
>> Uh, there's so much more to learn about Commander and that's what makes it so exciting. I think if you you've learned this much about commander, you're here about magic in general, then you know that magic knowledge is uh a process.
You start learning a little bit and you learn enough just to be able to get into the pool and then you learn techniques and then you learn to be a better swimmer and then you learn the right tools. Uh all of that stuff is a process. You're not going to learn it all today. So you can learn it from watching a lot of gameplay like we mentioned either on our channel or on others. You can learn from uh friends and family that you play with.
Obviously, that's a great way to learn and grow together. You can watch podcast episodes that we put out. We've linked to several in the description for this episode that are good places to get you started. But there's so many tools that are how to build a deck around this commander. It's how to how many lands should you be putting in your deck, how to mulligan properly. All of those things are available online. If you have questions, chances are if you Google it, there's going to be an answer already.
>> Yeah. I would personally recommend game nights as a great starting point, especially if you're learning more about >> with a K >> with a K. Yeah. Uh not regular game nights. Those are great, too. But game nights with a KR content specifically because we do a really uh detailed job of explaining card interaction, u making sure that we step through the turns in a way that is clear and follows the rules.
Um, oftentimes more gameplay shows will sort of shortcut things or do things more casually. And those are all fun and great ways to learn how to play Commander, but specifically on game nights, we do tailor it towards an audience that is potentially a bit newer to the game or just likes to see things step through and have interactions explained in a way that makes sense uh for especially for newer players. We've we've often heard that, you know, a lot of teachers will use game nights as a way to teach their students if they're in like a magic club at school how to play the game. Yeah, that should be enough to get you started playing in Commander. Uh before we go, Jimmy and I are going to talk about why we love to play Commander, why this is our format of choice. We're going to get to that in just a moment. But if this has you excited and you want to pick up some Magic cards, you can do so while supporting this channel by going to cardkingdom.com/command.
Card Kingdom is a great place to get the cards that you need because they have an enormous selection. If you want to buy a pre-constructed commander deck like we talked about, it's a good place to go.
Or if you want to build your own deck from scratch, it's also perfect. You can build in an online deck builder. We tend to use Architect, uh, and then you can copy that list of cards, paste it directly into the deck building tool on Card Kingdom. It'll show you all of the cards they have in stock, what version you want, what printing, what foiling, what condition, so you can get either the cheapest version or you can get the coolest version or the most flavorful.
And you don't have to be on a ton of different tabs and pay shipping a million different times. It's all just done on one website and they take care of you. So support the show and pick up some sweet Magikards at card kingdom.com/command.
>> And something that we didn't talk about today, but one of the fun parts about playing commander is outfitting your deck and making it super cool looking or matching your favorite color or your theme. Uh, you can do so by going to ultrarpro.com/command because there you'll be able to find deck boxes, sleeves, dice, playmats, and all the necessary accessories to make your commander gameplay all the more fun. And maybe a card sort tray and when your collection is getting bigger and you need a better way to sort of keep track of the cards that you're acquiring. So yeah, ultra.com/command has all of those goodies and more. And often times they have great sales going on where you can get stuff at an awesome discount. So, it's not quite such a strain on the wallet because playing Commander already and building a deck can be a bit of an investment.
>> Absolutely. All right, we're going to wrap things up here with just why we personally love Commander.
>> Yeah. So, for me, this stems from uh I used to love games like World of Warcraft, which were inherently social and you would join a guild and you would do dungeon raids with a group of, you know, four to five people or big raids with 40 people. And in those games, I found that one of the most memorable things you could have were the what I'd call oh crap moments. Now, back in the day, I'd use a more exploitative version of that sentence, but these are moments where, again, I described it earlier in the show, where everyone sort of goes, "Holy moly, oh my gosh, I can't believe.
Wow." Something crazy happens, an interaction you never expected, something bugs out and goes weird on screen. Everyone captures it in their memories and they share it together on your Ventrillo server or your Discord server. Uh, and those moments I think are such a memorable part of gaming for me. And Commander is really the only game in my current sort of atmosphere that gets to replicate that moment multiple times, sometimes even in a single game or across a couple of nights of gameplay. And those are the moments I really do live for because everyone gets to have a big smile on their face and go home with a core memory sometimes that will last a lifetime and continue to show up in different ways and sort of expand your love of the game and gaming in general.
>> Yeah. Um everything Jimmy said.
No, I I really came to Commander because I love deck building and I like the creative side of building a machine that works around a character that I really am compelled by. I think deck building was the the main reason why I fell in love with Magic in general. And deck building is not a huge part of other formats. Like in standard, somebody else will build the best deck. I >> Yeah, you'll make some alterations to it. Maybe >> maybe. But like for the most part, you're just going to play whatever the professional player uh tells you to play. And I that was less interesting to me than the idea of being able to make something that like I specifically constructed and I designed to make do this thing. So, I loved the creative and aspect of it and the personalization of it, but I also really love when you can take two weird old cards from two different generations. You can take like an old brown bordered artifact and combine it with like a new Doctor Who card and something crazy. I really love um >> combining two pieces that were never imagined to be next to each other and making something really crazy happen.
So, uh that's that's definitely my favorite. I also like that it's just kind of chill.
>> Yeah, >> you can do you you can make mistakes and you can play suboptimally and you can uh do something that you're like, well, this probably won't win me the game, but it is going to be sick. So, I'm going to do it. Uh, >> it can be quite goofy.
>> It can be goofy. Yeah, I like the performance of commander, I think, is a big part of it. I like being able to perform my deck.
>> Yeah. Another thing I do love about Commander is the fact that we get to work with amazing team here at the command zone. So big thanks to the team that we have here that either help us write episodes or edit them together. Uh they put in tons of work behind the scenes and we do appreciate them quite a lot. Karina Cruz, Josh Diaz, John Schneider, Gabi, Jamie Block, Jordan Pton, Jake Boss, Fakey Bell, Eric Lamb, Manson Lung, Josh Murphy, Evan Lmber, Sam Waldo, and of course Josh Lee Clyde.
>> All right everybody, thanks for watching. We will see you next time.
>> Byebye.
>> Bye.
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