Thursday, March 13, 2025

EDH and me, A tale of suspense and intrigue

Recent someone of notable prestige made a post about his encounter with a certain ornery EDH player. This reminded me of my encounters with the format, and even my history of the game at large. After a long FB post, I decided I'll post it here, and hopefully make an enjoyable, if not somewhat long read. So sit tight, relax, put on some music, and lets a stroll down memory lane.

Now my history with the format is a mixed bag. Everything from pretentious hipsters to chill tournament winners, to zealous casuals who don't even know the rules of the game. It all started back in the distant summer of 2007. It was my first time in Indianapolis, as my dad had bought a horse ranch in the outskirts of the city with dreams of becoming a prestigious rancher. There was a local shop on the southside and like many, me and my brother would go there to throw down cardboard on a Friday night/ One night, someone asked if we played "Elder Dragon Highlander", and while I hadn't played it before, I was vaguely aware of its existence.




He gladly gave us the basic lowdown of the format and its rules, and that week me and my brother each made a deck from his cards. I made a Teferi theme deck, he built Savra with lots of Golgari themed cards, big green beaters, and ways to produce/sacrifice tokens. The next week we played a round of EDH. It was fun, this was still a few years before it became a formal format. Pods were big, lots of janky throw away cards being thrown down. I made a second deck that summer based around Rosheen Meanderer. This wasn't on a theme, but on a mechanic, trying to end the game with a massive fireball or draw the game with an Earthquake/Hurricane. Lots of Hydra's and mana doublers in the deck too, with a steady supply of Fog effects and removal. 

I don't remember much from that summer, but when I got home to NY I told everyone I knew about the format and it grew in popularity, I even made some cash by renting out my 5 color legends to people (in those days no 2 generals could be in the same Pod and Reaper King was unusually popular). However our format remained 60 card "casual", adhering to the Vintage ban list. Rorabacks was a common place to play in those days, and even in my earliest days, casual was trial by fire. One of the first casual games I ever played that wasn't with a family member involved a dropping of power 9 and a first turn kill. Academy decks were notorious as well, which forced me kicking and screaming into good deck building. It's actually how I learned how to build Stasis as a budget conscious alternative to many more expensive decks.

 Of course, at this point, this was a distance memory, and I was a decent player, even if I wasn't exactly super hardcore (I was building a car in my teen years and enjoyed other hobbies as well). In 2012 I moved to Indiana full time, at that point EDH was an official format, called 'Commander', and I was just out of college age. I met two teens at a game store playing that other card game, and a week later they called me, asking if I could teach them how to play Commander, not Magic, but specifically Commander. I agreed, we had pizza, it was a fun time, and one of those brothers would remain my best friend for a few years after. This honestly is where the change comes in, as EDH over the decade usurped the main game. More people getting into the game would get BTFO at a FNM and decide to just stick to EDH. Where in times past they would ask "well how can I make my deck better" it was become more and more "no, I'll just play this instead". 

Standard and modern definitely trudged on, but crowds slowly dwindled, at least in my experience, some of this brought on by some utterly atrocious formats, and some by the increased popularity of EDH. Modern Horizons was the death knell of casual and brewer modern players, and covid finally killed off Standard. In fact, my last standard deck I actually played standard with was built in 2019 right around the time I sold 90% of my collection (boy did I pick a bad time to do that!) 

Now I enjoy my old cards. I use to be extremely active in 93/94, and I like to pretend I still am. I occasionally will pick a commander and try to keep the rest of the deck as old as possible, usually having Homelands or Alliances be the cut off. Sometimes however, I'll continue into the larger premodern pool. I've tried a deck with almost every non-vanilla legend in this experiment. Mid-range Jacques le Vert where every creature in the deck was green. Dakkon Blackblade voltron, Merieke ri Berit control, so on so forth. I even once used Jerrard of the Closed Fist as a pauper EDH commander.  I'll also use newer commanders, forcing me to utilize cards I'd otherwise never run to get the most advantage out of the commander's mechanics. A few notable ones included a Tergrid deck, Satoru Umezawa deck called "Anything can be a ninja, even a cosmic horror", and my favorite, Judith burn.




These decks are usually seen with suspicion when I sit down in a random pod, and even less so with irate anger. One very flamboyant man said in response to my comment about no card in it being newer than 97 said "Oh so all your cards are ugly as shit". I was legitimately insulted, both because of what he said, and for him not understanding the usefulness of Glacial Chasm (especially in a burn deck). Later that game I discarded his entire hand with a Mind Twist. He responded with a "do I at least get to draw a card?" I replied "this isn't baby Magic man."


Another person on Spelltable once gave me an extra turn in hopes I'd be able to beat the fourth person on the table before his turn rolled along and he won. When I failed to do so (by no means a fault of my own, he just had answers) the guy yelled "I can't believe I wasted that on you! You have a bunch of cards printed in 1978, why do you even play with cards like that?" before disconnecting from the game. The worst in recent memories from Spelltable, came when I snuck my Mindstab Thrull into play attacking with a mechanic called Ninjitsu. He argued its ability was an attack trigger, which I repeated and even cited how all it cares about is its attacking, and it's not blocking. After 15 minutes of back and forth of circular logic, I conceded and went on with my night.



Despite all these, and more, I've also met some cool rando's in EDH. While few and far between, they were there so I can't entirely hate the format. I can say, something about the game, brings out the worst players in the game. I would deal with a thousand bitter grinders before having to deal with a "rule 0" conversation. 

The most disheartening conversation I had involving EDH involved a previously unmentioned friend of mine. He was an old hold out who due to his age, can't do much physical activities anymore, but he can play Magic. Just last month I asked him to bust out some 60 card casual which he replied "I don't have many of those anymore man, all I really play is EDH now." It really put things into perspective. Like I have some 20 casual 60 card decks, and if I can't play them, why have them?

Anyway that's rehtorical, obviously. This has been my experience of the game, and the format as a whole, a rather brief one at one. I could sit here all day listing all the EDH decks I've built, especially before 2019. I'll probably continue to have a few EDH decks (which is more than I can say about Standard), but it does make me ponder of the future of the community as a whole.

Saturday, January 25, 2025

Format Review: Four Horsemen.

 Formats change the way we play Magic. Every time a set is added, or removed from a format, they game changes. I often like to say how much different each OS Format is, because of the different banlists and how they need to be played because of this. 

In this new series, I wish to explore the extremely wide and varied formats that litter retro Magic: the Gathering. Whether it be Fallen Empires, A40, 9340, 95, Scryings, Middle School, ect. I wish to explore them all over the course of the year, giving my honest, unbiased opinion on each of them. 


As of writing the current ban list, and potential prizes to the top 8. As well as contact info. 


Legality: Four Horsemen is a format consisting of the infamous 'Four Horsemen' sets of Old School, which are Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, and The Dark. In addition to the cards legal to these sets, basic lands and the Limited Edition Duals are legal in the set as well. 

The set allows proxies, and all reprints, and over the course of several years has had a dynamic ban list, with a number of problematic cards being banned slowly over it. The format is mostly stable now, though a recent restriction to Sylvan Library and Dark Heart of the Woods shows the committee is willing to put a damper on long term strategies. 

There was something nice about the proverbial 'Wild West Days' when the banlist was only ante cards, however 5 hour games get boring fast. 

The Rules use modern MTG rules with the exception of mana burn. Falling Star has special errata common in other retro formats. 

Currently on its 18th tournament, there have been variants, including pauper, "Legends Spice", and Highlander to mix up the mixture up the otherwise tedium of the format and keep it exciting. These are often done to a vote. 


The Good

Prize Support: Not just for bragging rights, prize support has been given out to tournament winners in the past. This includes Tokens with art from Ken Meyer Jr, playmats, custom made proxies by John Ekleberry, and I even got an art book and poster for winning the Spice Award one time (though what deck won the spice award I forget). 

Community: The community is rather small, as is with most of these niche formats, so it's very (sometimes I'd say to) relaxed. Though, you are expected to play with tournament decorum, since these are tournaments. There is currently a dedicated Website, Facebook, YouTube page, and discord.

Deck options: There is a surprising number of deck building options despite its relatively small card pool, and the four classical archetypes all have decks that can be built and played. For combo you have Land Tax, control has stax and tempo strategies, aggro has a number of decks, and midrange include Ernham/burnem, suicide black, and blue skies. 


My current deck for tournament 18. A 4 color midrange build.

Tron deck, older, but after Strip and Mine restricted. Still has multiple Factories.

"They Might be Giants" a red \white experimentation of banding.




Legends from a previous tournament, before the restricting of Strip Mine and Maze of Ith. 

Although I admit these are my personal decks, and I'm not as varied as other players, this shows an example of the variety of cards that can be used, which wouldn't be playable in other formats.

The Bad

Enchantments are extremely powerful in the format. In fact, you need to build around the fact that options for removal are limited. While The Abyss can be answered to with other Enchant worlds, few options exist for destroying other global enchantments. Presence of the Master and Desert Twister infact are the only generic hard removal for them. Remember this when designing the deck. 

Removal: Very few instant speed removal exists in the format. While I do enjoy this, if you're coming in from a faster format like Old School proper, it can be a big adjustment. This however, does inspire creativity, which I feel is a net positive in the long run. 


The Ugly

Creatures: While many good creatures exist in the format, there is an extremely wide variety of just unplayable ones. While this is true in almost every retro format, giving the smaller card pool and lack of core set it becomes more noticable when designing a deck. Most of these however, are from Legends, which luckily, is easy to overlook. 

Simplicity: No text change effects exist in the format, nor (with the exception of Blood Moon) are there ways to change land types. One of my favorite casual strategies is gone with the wind, but alas, I live with it. 

Set Hosers: The Set Hosers are banned (City in a Bottle, Golgothian Sylex, and Arena of the Ancients). I always felt they added an interesting dynamic to both this, and old school, but for the health of the format, they are banned.

Links: Website - https://www.fourhorsemenmagic.com/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@4HMOSMTG/?sub_confirmation=1 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/fourhorsemenmtg Discord - https://discord.gg/wyXFHtgsar Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/fourhorsemenmtg/ Etsy - https://thefourhorsemenshop.etsy.com/