Ew, I got CEDH in my EDH… Today we’re here to talk about power levels in the casual commander format, as well as how to encourage better CEDH & EDH play by more carefully separating the two formats despite their strange interwoven nature. As a “retired” L1 Judge for Magic: The Gathering, I’m here to dig into the topic and pull apart some of the nuances to try and help you get better games of Magic: The Gathering. (Because if you’re anything like me, you value your time and energy far too much for bad pods!)
The Problem (Power Scaling & Power Levels):
Strap in, kids, you’re gonna need some history for this one. One of the biggest issues that magic players often face when making the transition from 60 card formats into the Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH) slash Commander format is often power scaling. Having been playing EDH/Commander since around 2010, it became apparent very early on for me that the floor was extremely low, and the ceiling was extremely high. Far more so than any 60 card format with 4-of cards and consistent gameplay. For the non game-designer savvy folks, power scaling and power levels are just the quantification of how strong a deck might be. In common layman’s terms – it’s how fast or efficiently a deck can go: “brrrrr.”
See, I got my start in pushing the envelope of what Commander can be by dipping my toes into French Duel Commander lists, a sort of cousin format of EDH using a similar 100 card singleton format with an attached commander. My OG favorite has always been Animar combo, back then using dumb cards like Shrieking Drake, Aluren, and Earthcraft to go infinite as fast as possible. That format was the fastest of the fast, and now, over a decade later – they’d barely count as the most fringe of common top tier CEDH decklists.
This brings us to our first problem in regards to power scaling: Commander/EDH as a format has been absolutely JUICED ever since Wizards of the Coast caught wind of it. Every new precon or new set pushes ever-more commander centric cards, which has led to almost as high of a card turnover in the format as the 60 card standard format. Hyperbole intended. People are barely able to get a feel for a new meta with new cards when only a few months later a new set drops and upends things once again – juicing certain decks or strategies.
Now, this is a bit of a scapegoat for you, as indirectly this means that the most complicated format of the most complicated game in existence is even harder to pick up and master than ten years ago when I started. As of this publishing, MTG as a game has over 25,000+ unique cards. In a playstyle-centric format like Commander where your commander dictates the flow or style of your deck, this means optimizing an ever-increasing number of possible commanders is becoming harder and harder as time progresses. Often, cards from products like preconstructed decks also become enormous bombs that warp the entire format of both EDH and CEDH, such as the ever-famous Dockside Extortionist, the gobbo that makes treasure go “yeet.”
How the hell is any player, especially a new player to the format, supposed to rapidly learn and master such an enormously complicated format? While I do acknowledge that the “bar” to EDH is already high, requiring a minimum level of intelligence to truly grasp… As players and community members, it’s more common to prefer additional people get into the game to increase challenge and complexity. At least that’s my take. For me MTG is the most glorious cerebral competition around, and I want more rivals, not fewer. We could talk about reprints being a part of this, but that’s another article.
Now, classically Commander has always used a 1-10 power scale to denote power level, which is an entire article in and of itself as more folks try to argue that Rule Zero conversations are superior to any quantified number scale. As somebody who prefers speed and flow, and whom has a pretty solid grasp of the power scaling of the format, I’m actually against more than a 30-second elevator pitch for your deck. But that’s entirely preference-based. You can google “Commander Power Level” and find a dozen roughly aligned charts or infographics.
Classically, anything on the power scale below a 5 or 6 is what you’d expect a child to bring to the table – a random pile of cards, maybe with some bombs or pet favorites from their collection. Basic landbases, etc. Most synergies start to coalesce around 6-7 which is where most modern precons fall, with some obvious exceptions like the Warhammer 40K precons and apparently the new Lord of the Rings precons (which says a helluva lot about WOTC’s work ethic or design constraints when they bust ass for third party crossover content whilst common everyday precons and products get left in the dust in regards to meaningful reprints or costlier lands!)
The problem often hits right around the 8-9 mark. Now if you know me and my content, The Brewery? I’d place our show at around a solid “8” most weeks as a barometer, with our CEDH Specials every ten episodes as an obvious exception. Competitive EDH or “CEDH” lies at a “10” on most power scales with wins threatened within the first 5 turns and a card pool of the best 500-1000 cards in Magic: The Gathering. I find playing at a “9” to be miserable, because at that point I’d rather just play optimal Magic at the “10” CEDH level or drop down to more poker-table vibes battlecruiser EDH. Oftentimes, playgroups over time will slowly increase their power level, often starting in the 5-7 range and ending at the 8-9 level for certain decks, provided they know nothing about proper CEDH metas.
Often, one of the most common ways players scale up their decks over time is by jamming in value cards, many that often live extremely commonly as either auto-includes or top-includes in the CEDH meta. Instead of focusing on their deck’s strategy, be it lifegain, combat damage, whatever, they prune synergy cards, removal, or the like for “goodstuff” cards. These are our Dockside Extortionists, Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora, Sylvan Library, Underworld Breach, Thassa’s Oracle, etc. etc. Despite my need to have my EDH and CEDH brewing constrained to just myself to avoid outside bias or meddling in my brews, we are social animals, and we absorb the discussion and zeitgeist around us. That means that whether we own a Dockside Extortionist or not, we’ll always be made aware of the power it can provide. (And don’t be one of those losers that tries to tell me casual metas don’t feed Dockside enough… Do you know how prevalent goodstuff enchantments and artifacts are in casual commander?… Fuck sake.)
Now, the one caveat we have to this problem, is a secondary problem which muddies the waters even moreso. The banlist for EDH/Commander is NOT managed by the company Wizards of the Coast, which is normally how MTG formats are policed, managed, and how egregiously powerful decks that consume the meta are banned into more diverse game metas. Somehow, in a discussion MUCH too big for this article, a separate private group with stake in the format established enough of a cabal that they claimed ownership over the general EDH or singleton format. The formal relationship between the company and this Rules Committee or RC appears friendly, but not only does this strange fellowship cause some problems for both EDH and CEDH players, it means the top-end of the format will forever be in flux until either WOTC dissolves them as a group and takes control of their IP, or the RC acknowledges the CEDH top end of the format, especially when it comes to TEDH or “Tournament EDH” which ends up being the top of meta for the CEDH format.
Now, I have my own damn opinions on the banlist, and while there are definitely cards that should remain banned, there are also cards that should be unbanned, and other cards that should be banned for better EDH casual play as well as CEDH meta diversity. My most egregious cards to be banned for the health of both EDH and CEDH are all the most common wincons or enablers in CEDH, which as per this entire article, would be better gone from casual tables to avoid tilted game states. Dockside Extortionist, Thassa’s Oracle, Underworld Breach, the common offenders that have made the CEDH meta more refined overall due to their pure power.
Now, the RC doesn’t much acknowledge CEDH outside a few general assignments of CEDH players as advisors. (There’s a huge problem with their entire card vetting process being conversation and opinion-based over hard quantitative playtesting, but again… Another article.) This means that most of their bans are based on the opinions of the original players of the format, some of which haven’t aged well since my halcyon days of 2010 or thereabouts. It also means that they have stated their philosophy as more of a general social format contract-upholding rather than any sort of balance basis. Many arguments for key banned cards are that they are “flagpost bans” to either try to boycott certain playstyles or game states. Power seems to be some sort of consideration, seeing as the classic power nine are banned for either financial cost or power considerations, but also considering the most egregious of CEDH cards are still alive and kicking, and continue to proliferate at casual tables in the 7-9 range, well… There are clearly problems with the process and the bias of who has control. But, at the end of the day I have zero stake in the whole WOTC vs. RC thing, outside of being frustrated with this weird purgatory that makes power levels harder to define and codify.
So… As power will always creep upwards… The stewards of the general format still have zero to no consideration for the top-end of CEDH and TEDH play… And newer players still continue to struggle to grasp the format and power scaling…
What the fuck is the solution?
The Goal (A Broken, Temporary Fix…):
So, what the hell can we do as magic players to avoid the inevitable awkwardness and general unfun of “pub stomps” or mismatched power levels? Because believe it or not, it DOES go both ways! CEDH pods with competent decks and players find it just as awkward when somebody rolls up with an underpowered deck that throws off the balance of a 4-player pod. The inverse of having some CEDH player show up to a pod and crush the battlecruiser vibe is just as shitty.
Right, so if both teams can’t seem to win, there has to be some sort of solution, right? Problem is that it has to have a couple caveats, speaking as an anarchist. Firstly, it has to be entirely voluntary. You cannot tell other people what they can or cannot play in their decks, and to the RC’s credit, at various points there have been admissions that local playgroups can play however they want, with any banlist they want. As much as they’ve institutionalized their own banlist across the LGS and WOTC framework, anyways. That means that we’d like to avoid just banning or unbanning things as per some list from some rando half a world away that has the balls to tell you how to play a game with your friends.
Secondly, we need to ensure that our goal is to maximize fun and entertainment, as per the RC’s own philosophies. I may not agree with them on all fronts, but I do agree with the philosophy of realizing that MTG is a game at the end of the day. You can choose to play this game with whoever you want, in whatever formats you want, and ensuring everybody walks away win or lose with a positive experience is important. Because again, it’s a FUCKING GAME. (People try to tell me not to reduce people’s Magic accomplishments by reducing it all to a game, but if your ego relies firmly on your success in Magic, I’d much rather recommend therapy towards improving self worth than maintaining one’s ego through success in a hobby. It’s already the most complicated format of the most complicated game in existence, that’s all the fucking ego boost you need.)
So what I ultimately propose is a solution I’ve already implemented for my own games of commander as well as something we’ve done on The Brewery… Ban CEDH auto includes and must-haves from your casual lists, and keep casual decks out of CEDH spaces. Seems simple, but requires a lot of active thought and care. There will always be arguments on what this line is or where it lies, which is the story of Magic, really – bickering for thirty years amongst ourselves. But I’ve found by refusing to run cards like Mystic Remora, Dockside Extortionist, and the like, I’ve not only given myself more space to improve deck playstyle synergies, but I’ve reduced salt overall in my pods, as I’m being forced to play more on-theme or janky cards in lieu of the ones I see every game in my CEDH pods.
Now, there’s a certain CEDH mindset that encourages playing to win at all costs, and always playing to your outs, that casual EDH or Commander doesn’t really hold as dearly to heart. Still, it’s often far more jarring when playing down than playing up to see these power level mismatches and endure the salt and frustration that results.
There’s a problem with this solution – namely that it’s independent, and also that it’s voluntary. We can advocate for our idea to try and get better games of commander for everyone, but we can’t strong-arm people into things they don’t want to do. Ultimately, a better way to solve this problem is to find pods that have players more similar in experience and game knowledge, or to walk away from players who are toxic or pub stomp for their own fun and nobody else’s. But I find this approach lets me play with lots of new players, and while I may jokingly boo people for pulling out a deck that’s 10 cards shy of CEDH and dropping Rhystics on casual boards, it’s all in good fun and in hopes of wanting a fair and balanced gaming experience.
Because at the end of the day, that’s what we want, right? Fun games of magic where everybody feels like they had fun. Because again, it’s a game for fuck’s sake!
I love both CEDH and EDH equally, and I’d love a world where they can coexist far better than they currently do.
Wishing you all excellent pods.
Now let’s get the fuck out of here.
-McRae
