September 2014 Bannings

[Offler]

Personally, I think a large part of the need for any sort of banlist has more to do with poor deckbuilding and bad play decisions (e.g. poor threat assessment) than the power level of any given card, but I guess that's the "spike" in me talking. Of course there are still things that aren't particularly fair or balanced (e.g. Yawgmoth's Bargain, Balance) that warrant inclusion, but ultimately this is a casual format.

Its not my Turbo-Eldrazi.

The problem became too obvious when I came to the local club. You know my blue Teferi deck - I consider it to be balanced between casual and power. Owner of the Turbo-Eldrazi EDH already make some show with his deck in 1 vs 1 play, and guy from the club became totally scared of mixing casual and PRO players. Since I wanted to make some EDH tournaments (Not Duel commander) he came to me and start arguing that we need to change banlist, or to have different sort of limitation.

Suddenly my blue deck became "blacklisted" because its using combos, while the turbo-eldrazi was not "blacklisted" due this reason simply because "its not combo". According to the list you can imagine power level of the deck. This was just the situation I did not want to see.

When I told him that 4 FFA multiplayer simply does not work like this, that "biggest threat" is focused on, he didnt listened. Every guy involved in some variation of commander with exception of me argued, that "politics" should not be part of play, only deck and playing should matter. Then I realized that I am in wrong place.

So the main question which remained:

How to make EDH tournament, with current rules, banlists, 4 players FFA, with entry fee and prizes and still remain casual?

a) Change banlist and rules - I am strongly against it
b) Drop casual, make tournament for competetive - That actually happened this month.

What I hear from other playgroups, everything is fine with current rules and banlists, because people understand the casual fun behind politics. However not our case.

[Davran]

So the main question which remained:

How to make EDH tournament, with current rules, banlists, 4 players FFA, with entry fee and prizes and still remain casual?

a) Change banlist and rules - I am strongly against it
b) Drop casual, make tournament for competetive - That actually happened this month.

What I hear from other playgroups, everything is fine with current rules and banlists, because people understand the casual fun behind politics. However not our case.

In my opinion, once you've charged an entry fee and are offering prizes, all bets are off in terms of the decks you can expect to show up. If I were going to such an event, I would most definitely put together the strongest and most cohesive deck that I could with little thought to playing "fair". Such a deck would be completely different from the type of stuff I tend to put together for our regular casual EDH nights, and I think that's how everyone should approach the format.

Look at it this way: let's say you're going over to a friends house to play some 60 card casual. Would you show up with your vintage storm deck for turn 2 kills, or would you throw something a little jankier together to at least get some play in? EDH is much the same for me - if I'm paying money for a shot at winning a prize, then I'm going to build the deck to win. If I'm just hanging out with some friends I'm building a deck to have fun first and win every game second.

As for how to fix it, I'm not sure there's a good way to do it. I've heard of the whole points system thing where certain plays gain or lose "points", which are then tallied to determine who the actual winner of the prize is...but other than that i think you're mostly at the mercy of individual opinions on what is and is not "fair".

[Grillo]

In my opinion, once you've charged an entry fee and are offering prizes, all bets are off in terms of the decks you can expect to show up. If I were going to such an event, I would most definitely put together the strongest and most cohesive deck that I could with little thought to playing "fair". Such a deck would be completely different from the type of stuff I tend to put together for our regular casual EDH nights, and I think that's how everyone should approach the format.

This.

I love playing EDH for fun. When I play with my friends I usually take out cards they think are unfair or unfun to play against. I usually play monoW or GW when I play with them.

But if I go to my LGS and I have to pay an entry fee and there are good prizes to be won... I'll just bring my Oona deck and try to win every table asap.

I think most of the ppl here share this approach to the format. For example, when I play friendly matches with Oona at my LGS, people will usually complain about how they hate combo. But when we are playing the weekly tournament, they normally compliment the deck and say it's cool how powerful it is.

[Offler]

Basically I also agree with that, I just got surprised when "turbo-eldrazi guy" took his deck into casual play (probably an attempt to scare casual players).

Result is slight change in meta (Cataclysm and some forms of mass destruction are now tolerated even in casual), however unbanning of Metalworker took that change back. Eldrazi, or Colloses may hit the battlefield on 3rd turn, earlier with luck...

Meta then has to change once more.