[EDH] House Rules

[Handle]

My friends and I are new to EDH, we are looking to play more casual games. The way I understand EDH is that it's a game of interaction between players, and some decks do not allow that interaction to take place. I know some people use house rules to support more casual and fair gameplay, I was hoping that some of the more experienced players could share some of their rules with me and my group to ensure that everyone is enjoying the game.

[94teen]

there are two things that jump out at me as things that have significantly improved gameplay with most groups that I've played with. First is house bans. If a card is warping your metagame, and is decidedly unfun to play against, see if you can get the group to come to some kind of consensus to not play that card. Some people enjoy the metagaming aspect of EDH; adapting their deck to deal with new threats and whatnot, but a lot of people just want to play the deck they built months ago and haven't touched since then. House bans help keep it more casual.

The second thing that we've done is, rather than hating out or "banning" or ostracizing combo decks, we've agreed that if you're going to combo off, either infinite or otherwise, you should concede before you win. You're allowed to play whatever you want, and you can win the game, but that way everyone else gets to finish the game, and everyone gets to play the kind of game that they sat down to play.

[bokwinkle]

I've been playing EDH for a while and there are generally a few things that you need to pay attention to:

The established banned list - they are there for a reason.

Stuff that drastically changes life totals - Aka, Sorin Markov, Magister Sphinx, and Biorythm

Really swingy cards like Insurrection, Tooth and Nail, and Time Stretch...generally these cards don't automatically say "I win" but they get pretty close.

Tutoring Generals - these cards can be flat out broken. Zur, Godo, Arcum Dagsson, Captain Sisay, Lin Sivvi, Momir Vig, and Sliver Overlord are probably the worst of this group. Not all of them are absolutely format warping, but in a novice playgroup they will tend to be pretty devestating.

All-Proxy Manabases for 5-color decks - it's a casual format, so I'm all about the proxies, but don't let someone show up at your table with 10 proxied duals, 10 proxied fetches, and 10 proxied shock lands with a 5-color deck that does everything and anything - it really isn't fun, and getting WUBRG is rediculously easy.

Contol...control...control...This can absolutely devistate a playgroup, try and stay away from everyone playing blue.

Other than that, just police each other.