SEPTEMBER 2016 RULES / BANLIST UPDATE
Duel Commander players, before we go into more details, here is the banlist update for September:
No card changes.
The Committee, with feedback from our Regional Coordinators and Consultants, and most important players (from local players, Duel Commander fanatics and even a former World Champion) have come to the conclusion that the current banlist philosophy isn’t efficient.
The attempt to lower the power level and dominance of Blue-based control and Green-based Elf decks in the current 30 life environment hasn’t been successful. Decks structured by Red, Black or White continue to fail to perform consistently. It is clear that solving this problem would require many bans and will greatly denature the format. The Committee has come to the conclusion that a major rules change is necessary to alleviate the inherent imbalance in the format.
Starting with the Commander 2016 update (on November 11th, 2016), Duel Commander will be played with 20 life points instead of 30.
First, to address the timing of the announcement.
The Committee wants to make sure that all players have time to adapt to the upcoming change. It would be unfair and disruptive to make such a large change without prior announcement. Tournaments run between now and the November update can choose to run at either 30 or 20 life points in the interim. However, 30 starting life points will no longer be supported after the Commander 2016 update.
Second, about the rules change itself. A higher than 20 life total is a relic from the original multiplayer EDH format. However, Magic: The Gathering cards are designed for 20 total life points games being played in duel, the most played variant of the game. A healthy format is about a balance between aggressive and control strategies, along with a few combos. So far, in Duel Commander there are few powerful aggressive decks – the most played decks are a split between control and combo. Starting with 20 life will change that. Aggressive decks will now be able to enter the format. These life totals will also help keeping decent rounds lengths and, therefore, more enjoyable tournaments.
Third, the switch to 20 life will come with card unbans. Many cards that are overpowered in the 30 life format have the possibility to be unbanned in the 20 life format going forward. Not everything will be unbanned at once as some testing and data are still required. However, there will be at least five card unbans in the Commander 2016 update alongside the 20 life points update.
Thanks again to the community for your fantastic feedback. We hope that you continue to enjoy Duel Commander in the future!
These changes apply on September 26, 2016. The next announcements will be published on November 11, 2016 (applying on November 12, 2016).
Until then, we wish you all many good games! 🙂
136 Responses so far
Andre Correa
September 26th, 2016
Are you aware that you are not adjusting a rule, but creating a new format, that is NOT what the Duel Commander players around the world became in love?
Sorry, but, again, your decision seems like to be taken without consider the impact in a global perspective.
You just managed to create a bizzarre hybrid of modern singleton (or vintage, or legacy)… If you maintain this new rule, be aware that you are destroying a format and creating a new one. And that’s not fair. You don’t even tried to debate with the players around the world.
Me and a lot of brazilian players are very, VERY pissed with this announcement. Really chocked.
I really, really hope that you see what you just did to us, and forget this change…
EpicHippo
September 26th, 2016
Not a fan of these changes. This makes it an entirely new format, rather than the same format. It’s just way too close to Highlander at this point.
Warthogg
September 26th, 2016
You guys are awesome!
At last a chance to balance out the format, and make some room for aggro. Looking forward to the meta-shift, and hoping Duel Commander games will be all-the-more interesting.
Keep the good job!
Samba
September 26th, 2016
Congratulations.
You broke the format. Like, really.
I had ONE deck I was really invested in. Now it’s worthless. I can sell the cards and say goodbye to MTG.
Go f*** yourselves. Can’t you just understand that Commander is a VARIANT of MTG, so you don’t have to adapt it to the usual game? Morons.
Duely McDuelFace
September 26th, 2016
I agree with the comment that this makes the game much more similar to Highlander, which I don’t necessarily think is a bad thing, but I do want to point out that as a format, Highlander is overrun with aggro. Maybe 25 life would have been sufficient? Either way, I suspect the 1 mana generals will have to be banned, and fast!
zang
September 26th, 2016
bien joué les mecs,
je pense que vous avez réussi a faire perdre l’interét du format a une grande partis des joueur flap flap flap flap
Nathan Santanna
September 26th, 2016
love it
Nathan Santanna
September 26th, 2016
loved it
DeckardCain
September 26th, 2016
Every time there’s an update something ‘fun’ is removed or changed for the worse.
You want to make agro decks good? Then let people play Edric or Marath. Sometimes you need to accept that there will be 1/3 of the field playing a specific deck like when Tasigur was allowed. A format that has a ‘meta’ or other signature decks can be interesting and add new layers to the game. Rather than letting this go on and having new cards change the game play over time, you’re outright banning whatever is most popular and calling it oppressive. In the case of Tasigur, many of the reasons you gave for banning him were very well entitled. But no matter what you do, there will always be the ‘best’ deck that people gravitate too. It’s like you want people to express their personalities through their commander or something but all the people who play the format care about is high level competition. The format is called “Duel Commander” for f*** sake.
Give it time and you’ll probably ban Liliana of the Veil or Hymn to Tourach because they’re good in any black deck (especially on curve).
Seriously this format is going downhill. I’m moving on to Canadian Highlander. It’s form of balance actually makes sense and sounds like a lot of fun.
Mauro Lima
September 26th, 2016
Duel Commander – RIP 2016
Leo_Grand_Arbiter
September 26th, 2016
Really not a fan of this update, this will create an UNBALANCED format as you still have your commander. Normal MTG doesn’t have commander. This change is just like change modern to 15. This change will bring the format to another modern. And people play Duel commander because they don’t like modern (me). This change will destroy the format. Please consider carefully before it’s not too late.
DX
September 26th, 2016
Duel Commander really is the opposite of casual format. Players are forced to build a new 100 card deck every 6 months and now we enter the era where they are forced to change the format they play alltogether.
MAGIC PUCRS
September 26th, 2016
WIZZARDS COMMANDER > duel commander S2
TL
September 26th, 2016
This is a HORRIBLE decision. This will do nothing but turn Duel Commander into a singleton Legacy. Aggro decks are going to sweep the format, and literally any slower decks are going to be garbage.
Thanks for ruining my favorite format.
Common Sense
September 26th, 2016
You’re attempting to hijack the format.
That’s pathetic.
Reconsider.
In the mean time, how do we go about setting up a new group to make banlists and whatnot?
janopi
September 26th, 2016
You have just destoyed format, that was called French EDH and at the same time created new format. I used to like the original format, but the new one is like MEH?
What bugs me most, is that there is quite huge group of generals that were like tier T1.5-T2 and now become like T4 (so trash) and there are players that played those generals who get screwed. Blue color as whole got screwed to hell (but probably that is what you are proud of).
Most played deck will not change Animar, Titania, Jenara will be still top tier. Mono blue decks will perish and there will be few other agresive strategies that emerge (sounds like great metagame shift!).
You have changed the spirit of the format. Before this change life total was not so important, because there was soft pillow of extra lifes. What players need to focus is to beat the opposing general and synergies around him. Now you when you kill general for the first time, the game might end before you get a chance to cast the general for the second time. That much faster it will become. So the general focus will be on life and board presence instead of synergies.
AkyhRoh
September 26th, 2016
LE SEUL format dans lequel on pouvait jouer intelligemment pour peu qu’on se donnait la peine de ne pas jouer un god tier en passe de ban.
Vous avez laissé la place aux jean-dylan qui jouent deja aggro monorouge/infect/zoo/elfball dans tous les autres formats de ce jeu que l’on pouvait justement fuir en venant jouer à votre variante.
Merci, j’adore votre travail continué ainsi j’adore perdre t5 sur une sortie normale de l’adversaire c’est priceless
Roland
September 27th, 2016
First: you destroy the mulligan in a format where you play only 1 copy of each card.
Now you destroy even more cards by reducing the lifepoints.
Whats next? allow 2 copys of each card and reduce the Deck Size to 80??????
Roland
September 27th, 2016
“A healthy format is about a balance between aggressive and control strategies, along with a few combos.”
Wrong! thats the Format called Modern! but we already have that Format, we dont need another Format like it!
Magnus
September 27th, 2016
That whole change doesnt make any sens . If aggro decks could not stand “a chance” they should just try to ban or balance something instead of changing the whole format for ONE ARCHETYPE its seems like clear bullshit to alot of people because i just threw alot of money to finish my dream control deck and now i read this change .It isnt standard or modern that we play . i think the best way to make such big chance is do a vote about this whole NEW RULE so that the whole community doesnt get mad about it or just the biggest part of it.
Pierre Dupont
September 27th, 2016
Bravo mes cocos j’adore ce changement.
” Mono blue decks will perish and there will be few other agresive strategies that emerge (sounds like great metagame shift!).”
I don’t see a problem with seeing less JvP, Azami, Clique, w/e. The 30 life cushin is hard enough, plus countermagic = bleh.
Overall I love this change, I am almost done building Glissa, the Traitor for this format and she can easily deal 20 damage with all the aggro inside. Sweet stuff. I like!
Merci encore! 😀
alara
September 27th, 2016
so you guys like aggro or sth？ lets make it one life and 10 cards game
Wellington Sampaio
September 27th, 2016
This is a bad idea, doesnt make any sens.
Zurgo, Thalia and Radha, Heir to Keld (New Tier 1 decks)
R.I.P Duel Commander.
I still play until november.
Max
September 27th, 2016
Enfin !
Rien n’assure d’avoir l’effet escompté mais la stratégie de ban précédente était clairement un échec.
Merci d’avoir sauté le pas, il ne reste plus qu’à tester avec cette nouvelle règle.
Igor Martins
September 27th, 2016
This regulation made by this group of “players” the commander has a blurred vision of what is understood format. It only has a regional and less global vision. By decreasing the Life points, and switch the format, not open to the possibility of killing the opponent with the damage commanders, causing many other deck die.
It would be more honest this “pseudon” regulatory organ, make a list of cards costs for assembling the deck to avoid dominant decks.
As a Brazilian will now fight with the leagues of national championships to be NO more adopted this regulation this insignificant organ.
Think more globally and with the true owners of the format ….. PLAYERS.
R.P.
September 27th, 2016
20 was too drastic. 25 might have been the better option.
But I totally agree that lowering life trumps the current ban mentality.
Kaldorain
September 27th, 2016
I’m unsure how this change will affect the game… I kind of agree with everyone else in that this format is no longer French Commander in a sense. And with aggro being the fore front, I feel like you missed the point. I have a friend of mine running Geist as his commander, and he has no problem killing someone with 30 life by turn 4-5…. In this format, I consider that aggro to be enough. My Krenko deck slaughters multiple opponents by turn 3, even multiplayer with a French ban list… Aggro doesn’t need help. Leave it be.
I say 25 is perfectly fine as a life total. 20 is too low.
Mish'
September 27th, 2016
Awesome change.
Saying it will make aggro ultra dominant and control unplayable in completely non-sense. Other formats play with 20 pvs and control is doing fine. Magic cards were intended for 20 pv and the 30 pvs made a lot of them underpowered while making others clearly more potent. The additional PV are just for multiplayers so that games don’t end too fast if a player gets gangbanged.
Best of 3 in 50 min in 30 pv was also a pain.
It does not “destroy” the format at all. People don’t play Commander because it’s a slow format : they play it because of the singleton nature, the competitiveness, the card pool, the flavor of having a commander …
Yes it sucks that people will have to change their deck a lot with this change, but well it this kind of big shift happens in every format.
Hypertensive
September 27th, 2016
Well, want to help aggro decks? Change the mulligan back.
20 life is insane and i’ll play until november and hope that this comittee is not so blind and see that 90% of the community HATED this change, EVEN the players of Jenara, zurgo and titania (as they fear, rightfully, that their decks will be banned)
Stop making big changes every 3 months, this is not fucking T2.
Lucas Bayde
September 27th, 2016
Are you guys out of your mind??
This change is the beginning of a new format. Just create it, vive it a name like, dunno, Modern Commander and let our format how it is now.
Tell US it’s just a joke, because i can’t belive
EDHFfreak
September 27th, 2016
I agree, the committee should take a moment to chill…before there was hardly one change per year, now we all fear every new set with thoughts what the hell will this “committee” ban again…
I mean argument to Tasigur ban was “he breaks the fundamental rule of increasing casting cost”
Now, when the commander DMG is absolutely pointless, isn’t it the very same thing? 20hp starting breaks one of the fundamental rules aswell, the significant rule of 21 Commander damage is broken.
FifthElement
September 27th, 2016
Oh boy, I sure can’t wait for those 3 minute matches, THANKS! 👍🏼
Zox
September 27th, 2016
Is there a way for community to vote to change Duel Commander rules committee members? If not, lets create a new committee.
meuns
September 27th, 2016
Best thing ever !
Arkain
September 27th, 2016
You are complete retards… do u even fuckin play this game?
Oliver
September 27th, 2016
What about commander damage ? Combo decks will be ruined (finding specific cards in less rounds will be imposible) and most of generals over 3 cmc will be unplayable. Top tier will be about few decks and much more similar to highlander. May be U can bann commander slot too a see what happens 😀 25 life is a good starting point, if U want to go this way. Why do U want to cut diversities and make boring highlander from commander ? And If U think that green was dominating, why didn’t U bann survival of the fitest? Most broken green card both in efect and sucking game time from oponent..
SliverPunch
September 27th, 2016
Seriously ?! This is a terrible mistake you just have done ! If you want efficient change, why don’t you try 15 or 20 cards sideboard with all the hate-cards against strong decks ? It will be more fair than that : less ban, more fun ! This is what a lot of people playing DC wants instead of your selfish decisions.
I’m waiting for your next maj but I’ll probably have to stop my favorite format…
And I’m very upset about it. Thank for spoiling everything in a few months…
PS : you’re going to create a scission between DC players and be sure that a new commission is going to emerge somewhere to maintain the Duel commander like a majority of people prefers it.
PPS : do you really care about the players feedbacks all around the world ? Sorry but it seems not…
TANeoK
September 27th, 2016
Guys, this is not really a change… this is creation of a whole new format. I would say many players can’t afford buying whole new deck for this very new format. And I think most of us don’t even want a play a new format. We just want our DC back… Please reconsider your decision.
EDh fan
September 27th, 2016
Désolé étant une buse en anglais, ce com sera en français ^^
Je n’étais de base complètement contre un passage à 20pv car je trouvais le changement trop radical, 25pv à la limite et déjà ça m’aurait dérangé… Au delà de changer le format, ça va le bouleverser, les listes vont énormément changer et les decks agros pures et durs vont apparaître… Seront-ils fort pour autant ? On verra bien…
Cela dit, les gens avant de dire “le DC est mort” ou “2016 : RIP Duel commander” etc, svp attendez donc de voir ce que ça donne ! Ne tuez donc pas votre format préféré tout de suite et prenez la peine de réfléchir à comment répondre à ce changement…
Enfin, concernant le comité, on a le droit de ne pas être d’accord avec eux, de discuter les choix surtout quand ils sont aussi importants… Mais avant de les pourrir comme beaucoup le font, gardez bien en tête que ce sont des gens qui prennent sur leur temps personnel pour réfléchir à comment améliorer le format… Qui pourrait en faire autant ? En plus, quelque part c’est justifié, comme quelqu’un l’a dit plus haut : le système de ban ne fonctionnait plus et il fallait trouver autre chose pour tenter d’équilibrer le format… Ils ont eu le courage de tenter cette nouvelle règle, que ça marche ou pas, ils ont au moins le mérite de se bouger et de réfléchir à tout ça…
Wait & see and have fun guys !
Dr. Snuggles
September 27th, 2016
I don’t like this at all, and a lot of people i talked to dislike it either.
One specific Commander rule was that the 21st Commander damage kills the opponent. That rule is absolutely obsolete now. Decks, which had a focus on this are useless now.
Piskes
September 27th, 2016
Please riconsider. Try with 25hp starting at least, and yet this will be a huge change. I play Gitrog control-combo, and I’ve noticed that very often, when I win a game, I’m about 3-4 hp. Cut off 5hp is reasonable but still heavy, while 10hp is insane.
Ashur
September 27th, 2016
Gentlemen, if it makes sense to ban Marath because it was too agroish and few months later complain that everyone plays blue and nobody plays aggro, please also consider banning card Island, because that would help out with control decks for sure.
From now on my playgroup considers MTGO commander banlist as a primary list of cards that shall not be played.
I wish to committees to become sane again soon. Take care!
leo
September 27th, 2016
You guys in the comments are totally ridiculous.
You are all mad about this change, say you will not play duel commander anymore, claim the death of blue based control and that they destroyed the format.
Do you realize at all that not everyone in the world wants to play control decks or blue based decks? As a person who likes playing aggro, i waited for this change for so long. Aggro decks have always been UNPLAYABLE TRASH in duel commander, and i don’t really understand why this should be the norm for you all. I just assume you can’t bear with the fact that you will probably have to change deck if you are playing 50 counterspells vendilion clique or shit like that.
If duel commander becomes more similar to other formats, that’s just ok. There is no reason why certain decks should be heavily disadvantaged by a rule that allows control players to do whatever they want just because they have 30 life. f you want to durdle all the time, you have multiplayer.
Lolo
September 27th, 2016
Strange how posters complain about commitee decision potency when the turnout in DC tournaments has been on a constant growth since the commitee inception.
As a game developper point of view, this change should have occured ages ago and will create an improved experience for all players.
As a player, I am toroughly excited to crack this new format.
All the guys complaining have it wrong. It is the best thing that could happen to the format. Congratulations guys!
Kai0h
September 27th, 2016
We have already singleton that is a santionated format on magic online, and this is exactly the same.
With this you have destroyed the commander damage, and that rule was the core of this format, and one of the way to built a deck.
If you think that is very hard to balance this format, probably this is not the right way to solve this.
Elros
September 27th, 2016
This is crap.
Want to destroy the advantage of blue or green decks? Ban 10 to 20 most powerful cards in those colors. But do not destroy the format.
This change gives power to already top-tier decks and thrashes all other. Jenara, Titania are most powerful decks now and you make them even more powerful.
I am a pilot of Gaddock Teeg and Karlov of the Ghost Council – two very fast (and one of them 1st Tier) aggro decks and even I am disappointed by change. Because format changes to “beat your opponent first by cheap creatures”.
Go **** yourselves, “rules committee”.
Roland
September 27th, 2016
@leo but when you want to play aggro decks, why you don’t play modern or pauper? Why do you have to bring down an other format to your will? Maybe it’s just not the right format for you, if aggro is not well supported.
Hypertensive
September 27th, 2016
@leo aggro decks have been unplayable?
Marath got banned because??
Titania is way too strong (even with 30 life)
Jenara is an aggro deck that has some small counters.
The format was just fine, but i trully and honestly belive that this comittee dont play the game at all, or play in a very small group that has some very one sided opinions.
And can someone PLEAAAAAAAAASE explain to me why do they think that changing the problem from “i cant play aggro” to “i cant play control”!?
What is the difference? Switching from one problem to another seens just dumb, especially when you have to kill combo together with aggro.
Some of this comitte wanted to play kytheon and just couldnt beat a monoblue?
fucklecomite
September 27th, 2016
Bande de naze
Marcelo Maia
September 27th, 2016
I can say goodbye to my Nin control/combo deck u.u or I shift to a burn deck or I wont see play. This create a new format, people here in Brasil are quite unhappy with this change, since many decks will go into oblivion………many players are really considering leaving duel for sure, and just stay with wizards.
Xiahou Dun
September 27th, 2016
This seems like a very lazy and careless measure. Just like other boring formats, if you want to play, you’ll have 3 or four decks you can choose between, otherwise there’s no point. Jenara was pretty dominant before, and now, it’s like the main deck to choose, with a ridiculous advantage. Red Zurgo and Geist also. And I’m not saying “Ban those generals!”, that’s not the point of the format. The point is to have fun, of course, in a competitive way, but also having good the means to implement different creative strategies and smart decisions that only this format allowed. Not anymore. Now, it seems to me that the main smart play is “cast you general as quick as possible, with haste if possible. Attack. Pass.”. I know the point was to try to diminish the power of control decks, but this is not the solution guys. Maybe create a new format and implement these rules is ok, but changing a beloved, well-established format into something completelly different is just cruel and a treason to the people who respect and follow your decisions. I see either a large quantity of decks going down the gutter and 3 basic decks dominating or people just ignoring this and creating new leagues and new rule sets. It’s really a pity, because I felt like we were closers and closers to having a world class format that could rival with t2 or modern in matters of popularity and coverage. My condolences. Duel Commander is Dead. RIP.
flo
September 27th, 2016
Question :
Does the 21 general damages still apply or will it change also?
15?
Nobody talk about it!
Chryos
September 27th, 2016
Finally ! Thank you for this. All the too powerfull cards in DC will now be balance (Sylvan Library, Mystic Confluence, even black cards with hp loss like Toxic Deluge), and many outsiders but low ccm commander cards will be playabe now, like Sydri, Sygg, Ayli, Glissa (yes, even control-color commander !). Mono white will now exist, mono red will perform well too. So yes there will be changes, but that’s for good 😀 .
Coutinho
September 27th, 2016
R.I.P Duel Commander
Bardiouk
September 27th, 2016
Congratulation! Good job guys!
Peacock Knight
September 27th, 2016
This is a good change!
Just want to know… What will happen to the commander damage???
Spencer
September 27th, 2016
Lol @ all the salty players. Even as somebody who enjoys playing control, I think this is a nice change to the format which is dominated by two archetypes.
For those thinking that aggro decks will dominate the format, those assumptions are incorrect. My predictions are as follows:
1) “Pure” control decks (Teferi, Jace, Narset, Keranos, and Grand Arbiter all come to mind) with very little early threats and all counterspells/removal will become much less popular. Tempo/Control, such as Geist and Jenara, will continue to see play but will be more heavily focused on early-game threats rather than draw-go.
2) Aggro decks, such as Zurgo and Radtha, will be more popular but can be balanced out by combo. In my experience, the rock/paper/scissors of Duel Commander is: Aggro > Control, Control > Combo (in most cases), Combo > Aggro. In this way aggro decks will be playable but not egregious. The only reason why Titania is so popular right now is her dominance versus Geist, Grand Arbiter, Keranos, and virtually every other control strategy. The popularity of control means that the only other viable strategy is one where you have access to cards like Sylvan Scrying (for Cavern) and efficient creatures (like Tireless Tracker/Titania/Nissa) that cannot be easily dealt with by 1 for 1 removal.
I think the only downside of this is Commander damage — that rule with either have to be reformed (to something like 12-13 damage) or completely removed because 21 damage is no longer relevant.
Bad Idea
September 27th, 2016
I think this is really a bad thing. Commander was about playing cards with a high mana cost, this is gone.
Now everyone will play Tarmogoyf in this format. Kill by turn 4…
Winnie
September 27th, 2016
This is a very, very ; very difficult and brave decision you took.
I think this is a good decision, but wait and see what will appen.
Thank you.
Omnath Fan
September 27th, 2016
Hey guys,
Please reconsider this decision. Everybody can make a mistake…
Marcio Borborigmo enfurecido
September 28th, 2016
tried to popularize one leader tyni, they managed not now make this change that will force us to play with basics cost commanders, trash
Azulrate
September 28th, 2016
Stupid, all “old school” and “casual” players will now have to face no brainer decks, and at the same time, unpleasent people… (I’m not saying that intellligent people ONLY play hard to manage decks and simple minded people ONLY play strait foward decks but the reality isn’t so far from that…).
Common “strait foward user” average joe in a common situation:
daahhhh on turn 1 I should put a 1 drop… creature, on turn 2 I should put a 2 drop… creature, and dahhh hmmm turn 3, ahhhh a 3 drop… creature. Yeah I rock this game.. ohh he survived turn 3, damn I lost…
and by doing so, the only option for people who can think, find interactions and develop new strategies in a creative and profitable way for the whole community, will be to go mainstream… more and more staple will be required to pair with those low minded, simpleton decks and in the end …
-staples are gonna be pricier
-decks will have to be more metagamed
-creativity won’t have a place anymore
-many commanders will won’t be fit anymore to be commander
and this downside list could go on and on for a long time!!
the only plus in this modification I can foresee is for people who are poor, or choose to not invest in a wonderfull UNREGISTERED ASSET which I’m totaly fine with but in the end, going that way will make the format less atractive, curious minds wont be attracted anymore.
Eduardo Hesketh
September 28th, 2016
We need a new Committee.
djsteps
September 28th, 2016
franchement 20 pv c’est trop peu. Adieu les jeux multicolor au risque de trop perdre de PV avec les fetchlands…ça va devenir de plus en plus dur que jouer des commandant avec plusieurs couleurs car stabiliser le mana nous fera perdre trop de PV !
je pense aussi que 25 PV était une decision plus raisonnable car tous les commandant à haut CCM ne seront plus jouable sous peine d’arrriver trop tard sur table et tous les commandant à petit CCM n’auront pas un ratio force endurance assez fort pour aggresser suffisament l’adversaire.
Jenara et titania seront encore sur le dessus alors que c’est les decks qui deséquilibre le plus le format.
franchement j’en ai vraiment marre de ce comité qui opère des changement aussi brutaux tous les 3 mois; C’est vous pour l’instant qui deséquilibrez le plus le format. Vous croyez franchement que les gens ne vont pas en avoir marre de devoir ré investir tous les 3 mois dans des decks ? vont croyez vraiment qu’on est riche à ce point ?
les gens essayent de vivre d’une passion mais si elle devient trop coûteuse à cause de vos changement trop radicaux, vous risquez de décourager les joueurs. tous le monde n’a pas le cube edh complet dans ses classeurs !! On se fait chier à investir dans des jeux pour qu’ils soient détruit 3 mois après. Et qui va rembourser ? pas vous c’est sur !
Sans parler en plus des cartes qui se bannissent automatiquement : deluge toxique , super !
bref vous commencez à saouler tous le monde c’est blasant !
putain mais faites referundum avant de prendre des decisions aussi importante en huit clos !
Anafenza Player
September 28th, 2016
In behalf of our playgroup here in Philippines..we are not happy with this change. We choose to play duel commander because we dislike rotating cards and favor the stability of the rules and diversity of possible playing scenario cause by single card rule. Hope to hear more explanation from you and the logic behind this “awesome” idea of the committee.
Derek
September 28th, 2016
As someone who plays Kruphix Simic Control, I have no problem with the life total being adjusted. When the majority of Top Ten cards in this format are dominated by blue control cards, even more than Legacy, that is a problem. I am excited to see more potential for red, white and black and to have a challenge facing those colours.
I can still put Show and Tell or Eureka on Turn 3/4 and will still reliably get out Blightsteel and Emrakul. Those aren’t very easy for aggro decks to deal with so early. A few small things in my deck will be updated but I have no reason to sell the entire deck or anything.
Caska
September 28th, 2016
This is a terrible “change”, which as many have pointed out is not so much a change as the invention of an entirely new format. Or rather, a NOT so new format, because this will turn EDH into a bastardized version of European (German) Highlander. In fact, it may even be WORSE than Highlander because you add frightening consistency to decks via the Commander (e.g. mono red always hitting the 1-mana 2/2). And that format already has a lot of problems to begin with, as it’s essentially just a variant of Legacy with many of the same meta concepts.
Many, many, MANY people I know or have talked with over years of playing Duel Commander online have expressed their disdain for Legacy-clone formats, and have always flocked to DC for the very reason that it offers a different take on much of the same card pool. For them, there not being high-pressure aggro decks defining the format (and Legacy as a format is VERY much under the gun) is a GOOD thing, not a bad thing. Control strategies are something they like, and it’s not like aggro is absent from the metagame completely. It gives decks time to breathe and develop, and actually pursue strategies NOT found in other mainstay competitive formats like Legacy – which is the opposite of what will happen after this “change”.
I propose that the old, REAL Duel Commander be kept around as a format, maintained and policed for the many, MANY people that love it.
Give the new “Legacy Commander” a new name, and make it a separate, highly competitive format – for those that want that.
Samba
September 28th, 2016
djsteps <3
MontyB
September 28th, 2016
great
i think it will do well with 20 lifepoints
the argue that can’t play aggro is more than now the argue you can’t play controll, why?:
aggro have to play against the core rules wich they can’t really beat
controll have to fight aggro with cards this is dev an option…
in every other format they fight against aggro and it happens that its work…
aggro was every time the enemy of controll so that you have not the opti stand against seems right.
aggro have a long time with the 30 life rule so let give it a try with 20 life…
and that many cards became bad with 20 life?
i don’t think that a libery know is unplayable for example….
i think it give a lot of cards its power back and gives us more with what we can play red for example get a lot good burnspeels that be bad at 30 but great at 20….
and maybe thats what the commitee wants to say with cards are make for 20 lifepoints.
and much cards like libery survival getting better how longer the games goes on so aggro will balance them.
if you want to play with more lifepoints or want play big costy cards why don’t play multiplayer?
with my frinds i play with both 30 and 20 and 20 feels for me mor right than 30 so i fine with the change…
the question about commanderdamage is good but i think they can let as they are there are they will less relevant but i know many people that have decks based on them so let them play
LOL
September 28th, 2016
Well i popped in cause I heard about french commander for the first time and find out its just singleton legacy. lol back to real commander.
A disappointed player
September 28th, 2016
“Magic: The Gathering cards are designed for 20 total life points games” Sure, and ? Magic: The Gathering cards are also designed for 60-cards decks without a singleton restriction and without a Commander…
I won’t even debate about metagames (There will always be one in a competitive environment, just deal with it committee and don’t force things like that), the problem is you are replacing a format with another.
Why do I play Duel Commander ? In my case to be able to play cards I can’t in other formats (mainly with high-casting costs) and to build various and creative decks focused on a Commander (rip commander’s damage).
That is the format I enjoy and unfortunately the format I enjoyED if you don’t reconsider it…
djsteps
September 28th, 2016
il aurait été beaucoup plus judicieux de baisse le total de vie à 25 et en parallèle de supprimer les 21 points de dégât du commandant.
Nathanael kawashy
September 28th, 2016
We need a new Committee.²
Tom Hyman
September 28th, 2016
This is rediculous. Mystical tutor, sens divining top, now this.its like they are purposely RUINING the game! There is almost no ramp unless youre green so there goes the high costing commanders. I guess everyone better get your goblin or clique deck ready because theres gonna be a surge of them….
Tom Hyman
September 28th, 2016
Im just going to get groups of friends and play at home and just proxy everything. Use multiplayer banlist for 1v1 games. And do everything backwards just like you guys.
Randy
September 28th, 2016
The reason I play duel commander is because I can try out slightly bigger spells while the deck can be still relatively competitive. This is different from most of the other competitive formats like legacy and modern, where only 1-3 cc spell is playable, or only selected few 4+ cc spell can be played as 1 or 2 copies in the deck.
Magic prints so many cool 4+ cc spell every years, commander is where those card will shine, and it’s the only place where those card can shine. I believe commander is one of the most important reason why magic is putting so much effort in designing those cards, why would we want to waste all those cards, and go back to the same boring card pool like legacy and modern, where only like 500 cards in total is considered playable?
I think we deserve a format where we can use bigger cool cards and try them out in a competitive way, and I don’t think the committee has the right to take that fun away from us. You can go create a new format if you want, but leave the old format as it is.
Tiny leader is completely the same idea like you wish, it used only 1-3 cc spells, 25 life in total i believe, but at the end, no one plays it any more, it’s so boring.
Burzun
September 29th, 2016
Really?! Instead of leaving us alone for a bit you’ve came with this?!
Here in Brazil we will change for Wizard multiplayer list with some changes. And let’s pray for a Wizard duel list.
You should change the website. This is not duel commander anymore. This is frenchnewformat.com. Next time instead of hearing your friends from kindergarden, or pretend professional players, or consultants, hear the real ownners of the game: us.
And don’t forget you’ve trashed out te current metagame you have. You will not be able to compare anything…
Good luck with your crappy format.
Marcio
September 29th, 2016
I think if the players wanted a more rapid format would have migrated to Tiny Leaders, one of the great attractions of the format and the great diversity of commanders and you guys want to end it.
Gaz
September 29th, 2016
Excellent changes team. Very happy to try some new things. Keep up the great work. 👍
Oliver
September 29th, 2016
100 card tiny frenchy leader. U can call it Napoleon format now.. Aggro has two diferent way to beat, by commander dmg. and infect. After life change there will be nothing special about this format..
Passant
September 29th, 2016
Jusque là je vous suivez.
Mais là, non.
Le Commander a été inventé pour être un format fun. Basé sur on a des cartes uniques, 100 cartes et 30 PVs. Pourquoi ? Pour avoir le temps et l’occasion de jouer des cartes qu’on ne joue jamais. Des gros pâtés, des cartes amusantes, etc etc.
Qui va jouer encore des cartes qui sortent à 6, 7, 8 avec 20 PVs…
Je suis déçu que vous ayez cédé aux sirènes d’une poignée de compétiteurs. Tant pis, on fera comme tout le monde, un fork du format.
Marek
September 29th, 2016
Congratulations to “The Committee” to complete destruction of functional and entertaining format! But mistake is on our side , because even after the unban Sensei´s Divining Top, we believe that you know what you’re doing. Now I do not think that unfortunately.
Jaroslav
September 29th, 2016
This change is absurd, if it would be 25, would be quite expected change to support aggro decks and still keep controls alive. Now, when there will be also 4color commanders in Commander 2016, I can switch back to german highlander to 4C blood deck and enjoy lot of mirrors…great job, RIP duel commander
Hypertensive
September 29th, 2016
The comittee had some balls to lower the life, but now it will take even MORE balls to say “okay guys, we were wrong(again) and we’ll return it back to 30 life”
kael wiersch
September 29th, 2016
What a huge change! I think the 5 cards getting off the ban list will be Serra’s ascendant, fastbond, necropotence, Yawgmoth’s bargain, channel. Maybe oloro can return but I doubt that will happen right away.
Aggro was basically terrible at 30 life, midrange had some representation but control was far and away the most popular and powerful archetype. 20 life may be too few, I could see a retraction to 25 but I hope we get a chance to experiment with 20.
Will a faster format mean less mardu, jeskai, and esper decks? I think it’s going to be quite punishing to be non green multi colored.
Fandorn
September 30th, 2016
I’ve made a quick list of the futur commander.
I think about Ezuri, Kytheon, Purphoros, Mogis, Geist, …
They can kill turn 5 …
They will be so powerfull that that “ban as commander” list will explode. Maybe the next big rule change will be “we remove the commander” …
More seriously. The format will need time to find a stable metagame after such a big change.
Now we will have to think “how to survive more than 5 turns ?” , or “how to kill in 5 turns ?” when we will build a deck
A simple “wrath” won’t be enought to survive … and that’s a good think.
Bruno
September 30th, 2016
Sweet tears of combo/control players who lost their unfair advantage. Ha Ha Ha
djsteps
September 30th, 2016
vous nous posez votre article de changement et VOUS NE VENEZ MÊME PAS DISCUTER AVEC VOTRE COMMUNAUTÉ DE JOUEURS. A croire que vous n’en avez rien à foutre de nous.
Il me semble aussi que votre comité est composé joueurs pro qui sont en même temps décideurs des bans et des changements de règles, et ça, ce n’est pas normal car on pourrait facilement penser que vous faites les choses dans votre intérêt compétitif plus que dans l’intérêt de la communauté. Il n’est pas logique d’être “arbitre et juge” en même temps. N’oubliez pas ce format n’est pas définit par wizards et donc non officiel, et non compétitif à la base, ce qui implique que vous n’avez, en quelques sortes, aucun poids légal. On se demande pourquoi vous cherchez tant à rendre ce format compétitif ! Votre argumentaire est plat et peu développé. On a vraiment l’impression que ces changements n’ont pas été réfléchis en profondeur.
Une chose est sûr, à force d’esquiver les appels de votre communauté, vous allez finir par la perdre.
Après, peut être que seul votre petit cercle élitiste vous importe ?
djsteps
September 30th, 2016
En tout cas, la moindre des choses serait de nous refaire un argumentaire un peu plus poussé, expliquant les tests que vous avez effectués, ou pas. Car poser les choses avec aussi peu d’explications ne peut que pousser les gens à s’imaginer tout et n’importe quoi. Votre travail de comité c’est aussi et avant tout la communication, et là, c’est pas faute de dire que c’est pas du tout votre point fort.
djsteps
September 30th, 2016
pour info : je ne joue pas control donc ne venez pas dire que je rage pour ça. Bien au contraire je suis un joueur de ramp et là, autant dire que jouer ces commandants va devenir quasi impossible, d’une part car on va se brûler les PV en voulant stabiliser notre base de mana et qu’on arrivera sur le champ de bataille trop tard dans la partie. C’est en ce sens que je vous reproche de rendre ce format aussi similaire que le modern ou le legacy. Il nous faudra jouer des jeux ultra rapide et s’en sera fini des jeux plus lent et pourtant pas moins intéressant ou compétitif.
Dave
October 1st, 2016
You guys are retarded. All you’re doing is creating a different set of problems. Let me spell it out for you: aggro has never been and never will be a viable strategy in eternal formats because it’s a crappy one to begin with when you have that kind of card pool
Ctrl_At_Elite
October 1st, 2016
While I agree dragging the life total straight down to 20 from 30 is a massive change, and they should’ve gone to 25 and tested the waters there, a change of this nature really needed to happen. Aggro was terrible for ages and basically unplayable.While this new life total I do admit makes decks like Zurgo broken, they did state they’re looking into the banlist to change for the deck. Zurgo, Anhk of Mishra, Price of Progress and Zuzo are most likely going to be banned. After which all that needs to happen is decks have to shift mana bases so that it doesnt deal as much damage to themselves with it, and add cards with life gain affects like Thragtusk, Huntmaster, Kitchen Finks and a ton of other good cards of the like.
djsteps
October 1st, 2016
at ctrl_At_Elite
Gain(Win) points of life will not change much because 21 points of commander are always valid apparently
Kelly LeTourneau
October 1st, 2016
I agree with above posters that 25 starting life would have been an adequate change and that 20 is a bit drastic. Overall I agree with the committee that there needs to be some balance between the different deck ideas and minimal card bannings.
I left modern because of one deck after another being banned and losing thousands of dollars in the process.
I also think it will never be a 5 turn format in 100 card singleton unless combos rule which is close to the reality nowadays anyways. Personally I am sick of playing against only blue and green decks and welcome the change.
dumbfounddead
October 1st, 2016
Imagine
Ramp to Hidetsugu turn 1
End of turn 3
Swing Hidetsugu + Hidetsugu second rite
Or just imagine a pure RDW burn deck that ends your format without casting any commander cars in turn 3
with this you just made a full set of idiots play pure burn decks and control players lose every game
no more midrange commanders 🙂
no more long format party games..
why not break the cards even to 70 and create a new aggro format
alara
October 1st, 2016
Thank you guys, now every place gonna have its own rule now, good job at turn duel commander to donkey commander
Dallago
October 3rd, 2016
People who need this kind of change must play Tiny Leaders
We need a new committee (3)
EDHFfreak
October 3rd, 2016
Everybody is talking that control is dead but as somebody stated, how can we play non meta decks with fun 4+ cmc cards now?
I mean Jenara is considered as aggro/control deck with very low curve, guess what, Zurgo killed me on t4 consistently even with great hands like t1 dork + jitte in hand. Is this legit? I cant tell, it feels very much like modern right now. Simply can you kill t4? no? too bad.
For people who advocates that combo will keep aggro in check – which combo are you talking about exactly?
Last time I checked: Ooze is banned, Marath is banned so the only viablo combo that is left is mono U tide which gets destoryed by mono R aggro.
Muddy15
October 3rd, 2016
Alright so now if your commander costs more than 3 it’s not viable anymore because too slow: looks very much like tiny leaders doesn’t it?!
Control decks are not viable anymore, and that’s a disgusting consequence.
Winterblast
October 3rd, 2016
The official Commander rules and banlist on the Wizards page make more sense anyway, no matter how many players there are. Just ignore this version and move on…
Why rant about ridiculous changes in the rules of a format, which has been developed by players in the first place? Just continue playing with the official commander rules and banlist, also in 2 player games.
I think in the last commander torunament we had here, the official rules were in use and not the French ones. I believe/hope this will be the case for future events as well and we can all forget about this mess here.
Caska
October 3rd, 2016
This format will very definitely devolve into what Modern/Legacy are, i.e. you can’t play most cards that cost 4+ mana and you can’t play decks that can’t handle a t3/4 kill.
Totally sounds like what Commander used to be about.
Guglielmo
October 4th, 2016
I do not like this change.
I think that there are good aggro decks in this format.
Please do not turn Duel Commander into Tiny Leaders.
Reconsider this decisión.
venser
October 4th, 2016
Now beat beatdown can kill turn 4, give combo the same (unban something), controll have usally problems with the cardedvantige by opponents commander (each 2nd land they have another commander) unban treasure cruise and dig thru time cause the game is not longer slow and the window for them are smaller or short look on the highlander banlist
Claude
October 4th, 2016
You must remember that we always have access to the general, which makes decks better than normal MTG. In that case, more life helps ensure the games don’t end too quickly. A move to 25 life to compromise would have been fine, increasing aggro but not too much and not so radically changing the viable generals
Licciolo
October 4th, 2016
You do realize that your authority on the matter of 1vs1 commander games is granted by the players and not by some superior entity like WoTC, do you? If you take enough unpopular choices, people can just start ignoring your guidelines (yes, the terms “rules” and “ban list” you adopt on your site are very inaccurate) and you will lose your autorithy, all it takes is a coalization of a handful rebel TOs willing to organize tournaments ignoring the new “rule” and if they are succesful, there’s a schism.
What I mean is that you should NOT consider yourselves elected officials entrusted with rulemaking power, because you are just a bunch of competent guys whose guidelines are generally accepted… and changes like this are so massive that they should require at least a referendum before being implemented.
tl,dr: You have authority only as long as you don’t piss people off. It would be wise not to piss people off with sudden, massive, arbitrary decisions.
alara
October 4th, 2016
That’s the point, time to create a new rule for 1v1 commander.
janopi
October 5th, 2016
If there is someone willing to form new commitee and start over, I am willing to give hand with creating new web site. Just post here (I will read it)
Today I was “correcting” my old deck to this nonsense change and it was utter bullshit. So they change tha pace of game by giving both players draw 3 lightning bolts and cast them for free(great!).
Highlander with 20 lifes and WITH general is too fast + banned list for this NEW format makes absolutely no sense. Just take a look at other HL formats (with and without generals) which cards are usually banned. Some cards are realy stupid in pure agro metagame with absence of control and with singleton restriction – for example Jitte, Skullclamp (just take a look at Tiny leaders, both are banned).
Testing for this imature format feels just BAD. It is certain, that banned list will tremble again. So thank you comitee for wasting time with your new format. Instead of thinking everything throug at once, you are leaking rules for this format like wizards are leaking cards for new set.
me
October 5th, 2016
someone please form a new committee!!!!!! this format sucks now.
Tasker
October 5th, 2016
Here’s what I don’t understand: If you want to whine and moan about the change, then just use the old banlist for your own tournaments and DON’T USE THE CHANGES! Also, complaining and calling them out/asking for a new committee is useless. Just set up your own list for each store/playgroup and follow that. Your other option is to try it until the next banlist update and give CONSTRUCTIVE feedback that’s not “THIS SUCKS, MORONS DO U EVEN PLAY???” Bunch of entitled children playing a GAME for god’s sake.
MontyB
October 5th, 2016
Maybe the controllplayer should look at their argue that dumb aggro(with dumb players) don’t fall back to themselves. mybe them are to stupid to build a good controlldeck against aggro…
sry but this came in mind by a loot of your comments
nero
October 6th, 2016
this change destroy the format, plz try 25 life first!
Spike31
October 6th, 2016
La goutte d’eau qui a fait déborder le vase.
Chez nous, on discute pour changer ou non de ban list tellement les dernières décisions prises par le comité c’est du grand n’importe quoi…
Shade
October 6th, 2016
Please go on and switch the deck size to 60, just keeping the singleton and commander specificities. Less fillers in decks, more stability, so a more interesting format with an increased impact for each card, more c’sitent synergies, and hence more challenge for deckbuilders
Note : No irony in my proposition.
Magical Blowfish
October 7th, 2016
I like how they called higher-than-20 starting life total a “relic of the original multiplayer EDH”. I mean, you might as well call the fucking general a “relic of the original multiplayer EDH”. You know, while we’re at it, let’s cut the ED from EDH and just make this highlander. Because that’s essentialy what this format is going to become now that you got rid of 2/3 things that set highlander and 1v1 commander apart (not including the ban list).
I was fine with the mulligan being changed, because whatever, it’s mulligan, that doesn’t really affect the format in a major way. That WAS an expendable relic of a casual multiplayer format.
But reducing the life total by a third because this one format doesn’t support conventional burn and forces people to come up with more creative ways to build aggro is just moronic.
And to all the Morally upstanding better-than-thou pricks who defend this saying that everyone who doesn’t like it can just play by the old rules – yeah, but then again again, everyone who didn’t like the rules as they were could just make houserules. The point of this is, it should be the best possible default set of rules for the format, and with this change the format is going to shit. Or rather it’s not the same format anymore. #DicksOutForFrenchEDH.
But seriously, fuck this change, I mean if you want to play aggro just play fucking tiny leaders or any other format, and how does this solve the fact that mardu is painfully underrepresented with only like 2 viable fucking commanders I mean what are people supposed to do play RW and win consistently because that’s not happening like ever considering RW is just a weak color combination when compared to simic since what can RW do other than burn oh yeah so this is just supposed to cripple non-burn I get it yay, fucking great this makes me moist.
Soap
October 8th, 2016
Bad decision, guys. I play with a aggro deck, and 25 life is a good sugestion. 20 life will make control decks too weak in the format.
IronVixen
October 8th, 2016
Well, first, i would like to say that even tough 20 hp is probably too rough, trying to change something may be a good things. If it proves to be stupid, they can admit it was crap, and go back. The fact the metagame was more midrange/control/ramp/combo oriented isn’t a good or a bad things, it’s just a consequence of the format rule.
I still think that a X cards side would be something good, as it would help fighting some unfair decks for aggro and midrange strategies, which can only be efficiently dealt with counterspell in the current Meta.
Second point, none related to what i’ve written before, but to what some people say : No, the Duel Commander isn’t mean to be “fun” in a casual way. It is fun because it is you and an opponent fighting for victory, with everything they got. So yes, you can play big cmc cards, that’s no problem, and in some decks, it’s a viable strategy. If you want to have fun in a 1v1 at home, then no problem. But if you come to a Tournament in a duel format, then don’t expect anything other than competition, because player are mostly here to win. And the format doesn’t need to be related to Wizard to be competitive. As there will be players ready to pay for tournament and TO giving out duals and 300 euros cards as reward, the format can legitimately have a banlist and people trying to balance it.
This then bring the problem of the Comitee. I think that some of their decision are arbitrary, and may be related to local plays, or even worse, shops. But it’s only speculation, and it’s not the point. But as said by fellow Magic player, their authority is based on us, in contrary to Modern/Legacy where Wizard rules. Lots of cards main deck were ban, and that create a “hole” in the pool of cards, those whoch are needed cards that are clearly too strong now.
I would gladly try out a new comitee, i’ve already speak this out with some heavy DC player, and i’m not against starting from scratch. But first, i would like to give a shot to their decision, which will need to be back off with good ban and deban of cards.
By the way, As said upward, shifting the game every three months cost a lot of money. You already mentionned you would deban at least 5 cards, so it means you already know those. It would have been nice giving us the intel now, and not three day before a major tournament in Paris, so we could buy, provided we could at least find them, in the 3 days following. Because you guys are probably gonna play to this tournament, already knowing what was going to be unbanned.
Lots of people trusted you guys, but it’s not about your choices, it’s about communication. More and more people think you make choice not for the greater good, but for yourself. I hope it’s not the case, but then, you have to speak more with community. A twitch chat wouldn’t be nice, as i expect many ad hominem thus stupud argument adressed to you. But you need to clarify what is a Competitive format in magic in general, and thus what should the game be looking. For tournament play of course. Point is balancing “Duel” Commander for tournament, where people will exploit every glitch in every possible way for deck building, and not for casual 1v1 play, where people should basicly play whatever they want, provided they both agree with their opponent decks.
Apologies for the chunks of sentences and my poor english, but i just had too many things to say, regarding what i’ve read in the commentary section.
mr. winter
October 9th, 2016
We can just play our own format with the old rules.
EDH commander is something wizards didn’t come up with. It was the players who came up with the concept and made it work.
We can still play the game we love, on our own terms.
Alex
October 15th, 2016
NO DUEL COMMANDER RIP
lyo
October 28th, 2016
That is so stupid.
You broke so many decks (some cost a very lot of money) with a stupid rule.
what about the 21 combat damage rule ? I have to make my opponent gain life to apply it ? lol.
no..it’s completely idiot.
the duel commander is not dead, only this “official” website is dead.
I’ll stay at 30 life and still have fun. I only hope tournaments won’t follow those stupid rules.
Xcver
October 31st, 2016
Jeez what is up with all this whining. I think it is safe to assume that no one that is bickering here has any evidence that this will cause aggro to be the only thing. While i think 25 life would have been better as a first try let us just see what will happen.
And all These ppl that want to quit and sell their stuff because something is changing. Please grow up
Marcio
November 3rd, 2016
what happened was already expected,
you guys turned a game that had endless game of odds, with a variety of commanders, in a tyne leader where the focus is to lower a cost of commander 1.2 or 3 and beat up kill, who do first wins, congratulations
SB
November 4th, 2016
Those guy fotgot what Commander is all about. Fun & Casual environment where you can play a miriad of style and deck… Really sad to see the format push into hard competitive mode. You will lose your most fun and original fan base doing things like that. I really ate competitive play with that format. Modern is a sad format for that same reason. Don’t let it happen to commander.
Emile
November 5th, 2016
Well, I stopped playing Magic and I came back thanks to commander. We are a small community and we voted for our own house rules. Unfortunately one didn’t like it and when we decided to vote again, those who voted the first time didn’t cate anymore. So we agreed in duel commander. Now that our small community has finally agreed, you guys come and change the rule. Unfortunately that muy benefits 3 people of our community who are only used to playing aggro and of course the are encouraging this 20 life thing. Well to make it short the community will be divided again and really only 20 life aves away the Magic commander was worth. We write from Cochabamba-Bolivia
yo
November 9th, 2016
This is an opinion of a casual player that like fringe generals and that is not good at being concise (understand : if you don’t like casual plauers or people that write too much please skip this post!).
I think the 30 life rule was useful for casual brewers and to give the format a little less reliance on the opening hand.
I’m not sure the overall diversity will be better and the spot of a more aggro based sigleton format is already held by tiny so… i don’t really get the point of it.
However I’d like to be convinced by the comittee so if you have some time let discuss about it.
A – Casual brewers love extra life
I think the 30 life rule was helping (a little) casual brewers by giving them more time before losing against higly-efficient-and-optimally-tuned-established-decks (i have no problem with those decks; they are piece of art and very interesting to fight against).
I know duel commander is a competitive format but there are a lot of casual players too that like to brew in Commander (because i guess it’s even harder in other MTG format).
But, with 20 life points, playing not optimal decks / not perfectly tuned decklists is REALLY forgiving. And homebrews are never (almost) optimals (because you are alone; because established decks have been built by cleverer people then tuned by the community …).
B – The opening hand issue
I think too the 30 life rule was helping (a little) at reducing the importance of the opening hand.
It’s ok that the opening hand is important : that way you can’t jam the 60 best cards together and call it a deck. It makes (with variance) brewing interesting.
But almost all MTG format and games are heavily dependant on the quality of the opening hand. Sometimes you loose because you get a bad one; mulligan into a bad one; etc… Sometimes you loose with a good hand because the opponent had an unbeatable one… etc.
That’s ok because the games where the two opening hands are balanced are so interresting that i don’t mind playing 2 “coin flip game” if the third one is cool. (that’s caricatural i know but you get the point)
Duel commander is really cool because beside being competitve it also have some tools to balance a little this dependance on the first 7 cards:
* a nice casual mulligan that was abusable by combo decks : gone
* overall variance (debatable) so that a nut draw may less consistently lead to a free win (free win are cool to report but not very interresting)
* the possibility of playing low and resilient/efficient generals to help mitigate bad draws : reinforced but what if you want to play a clunky high cmc general? it was hard before; it will be VERY hard now
* high starting life points that give you a (small but existing) chance to recover : gone
C – Aggro format / tiny ?
So will it be more aggro with 20 life? probably. Will it be more diverse? Not sure.
Will the games be shorter? probably. Does it mean more interresting? Not sure.
Honestly if i want to play a more aggro based two player format; i’d rather play tiny Leader. Having both was cool; now with have tiny and tiny-with-less-life-but-some-high-cmc-cards-in-it.
Overall,
the only thing i’m sure is that the challenge i liked (playing bad slow generals) will probably ask me even more work to win even less often than before. Thus i’ll quit i guess.
————
Bonus
Want to make blue decks less oppressive?
What about giving instant a sorcery speed? Pretty sure that’s the solution. We could rename the format in “not commander nor MTG anymore singleton format”.
James
November 11th, 2016
Before this announcement was published I was working towards building my first commander deck. This announcement has be questioning my decision to invest in this new format.
I have played both modern and standard, and I was excited about playing a game that was different than what I had been used to (note that I use the word game and not format). The lack of aggro, the additional rules, the general and many other aspects of commander really make it a different game as opposed to a different format.
I’m really not interested in buying another modern style deck and I am certainly not interested in playing modern duels with the insignificant twist of the commander that I might get to cast once or twice.
I was so excited to play this new game because it was so different. Now it looks like it will be a weird amalgamation of modern and vintage. The idea of a game where control/combo decks fight long battles focused on their generals really appealed to me. It was novel, it was different and it was something I was really excited about.
That excitement it gone, from the perspective of someone who already plays multiple formats and was interested in playing commander, I fear that this rule change will keep myself and many others like me from diving in. We wanted a new game, not just a new format.
Bohe
November 11th, 2016
Guys… can you please see the last top 8 in mtgtop8.com in 20 HP tornaments?
Zurgo and Kytheon are now making an appear… But the rest of the top 8s are doing well keeping both under control.
Titania, Narset, Gitrog, Jenara, Doran, Leovold, Keranos, both Marchesas and Jace are the other commanders that make top 8 besides the aggro ones.
And this was events with like 80 people… I think the meta is in a nice route. Stop complaining without analize all the panorama, adapt your control decks to less expensive removal and cards, and keep enyoing commander, just like we always do.
Pd.- Reading some of you make me realize the fact that the world is full of people that just talk (or type) just becuase they can, and they do it in a very unrespecfuly way.
Greetings.
Wanderer
November 14th, 2016
I love the 20 life,
the game is balance there no BLUE fckng Meta right now. all can decks can win its a matter of decision and game style…
Kai
November 17th, 2016
This is a good decision which will help to balance the format, I’m sure. We play some really strong competetive decks and whenever we played EDH 1VS1 in private, we already changed the life total to 20 and it worked perfectly – the game balance was much better, and suddenly even a Kaalia Deck was able to make a win. EDH 1VS1 is not the same as EDH Casual Multiplayer, and it is not healthy to mix the 2 formats, so IMO this decision is a really important one. And to all the people who are pissed of by the decision: Try it!
blood$
November 17th, 2016
Come on stop being stupid if you want to create a new format do it but don’t ruin something that everybody enjoy !
Jesus Ramos
December 27th, 2016
🙁 I spent 100$ USD this Christmas 2016 for my commander and was very pleased! Now that it would be 20 instead of 30 life that money is gone, as well as the 250$ my deck is worth revolving a 30 life game (not to imagine a 1,000$+ deck).
Now I have to go get new cards to make up for my 350$ loss, nope I’m done with Magic, this was the last format I played from you guys!
I liked it slow, its mainly a casual format. Who cares about aggro 14 % of the players in this format in comparison to hum lets just say control which shall be well over that %.
Its about the money guys it’s not about you (wait it does suppose to b about you)! Don’t take it personal (I mean the opposite, if you dont buy then they will have to return the 30 life).
And also the MTG market will have a significant amount of cards drop in value while only a very few will rise in value, the consumer looses MTG wins, Business 101!
This coming from a Brimaz (Tap, Control, Unblock-able Commander damage)… RIP EDH!
bobeli
December 28th, 2016
Icompletely agree with many players’ suggestion before me, that 25HP would’ve been more acceptable, as well as more balanced. this change is just killing specific commanders. Look at what happened to Thraximundar decks. Or Marchesa decks. Or Nin decks. Or anything that is close to Grixis… Vial&Kraum! You can’t play anything else, coz it’s too slow. And I have a V&K deck, but I’d still much rather play Marchesa p.e.
I, for one, 100% oppose to this decision, and hope That Y’all come to your senses
P.O.
jardach
January 2nd, 2017
ban Vial Smasher pls..too OP..unban T.Academy and G.Cradle…
DesArthes
March 7th, 2017
“Magic: The Gathering cards are designed for 20 total life points games being played in duel”
What a stupid quote. Original Magic assumed vanilla grizzly bears to be for 2 mana, not like today 2 mana 4/4 flayer or 1 mana 3/2 flying delver. Heck even in the first expansions up to 5th edition, you dont even get 3 mana creature with 4 dmg without drawback (maybe some vanilla 4/1). So if the magic got feel like it was in ancient time, maybe he should increase start life on all classic formats
Ryan
March 25th, 2017
Please change the commander format back to 40 life. We are all used to having 40 life. All of our decks are balanced around having 40 life. Really what you need to do is just ban a few cards like Sorin and it would be fine. There’s no need to change the life totals like this. It totally ruins the entire format. Please listen to your players and change it back to 40 life! Thanks!
Kor
April 25th, 2017
I think this is the biggest mistake ever made. It simple makes DD compete with Modern/standard and 99 cards is to inconsitent for 20 lives, it is exactly the same to play 60 card format with only 12 lives.
33 lives is the sweet spot for DD. So even 35 lives is better then 30 or 40, but 20?! Come on, it is so unfun, the manacurve goes obvioulsy down, which means the $ price $ goes UP and the variant unique games goes DOWN, because of the modern/standard/legacy formats are already in the normal low curve and are expensive and low curve is allows less high cost rarely played cards.
Stupid mistake, I think they are to ignorent or egocentric to admit that. We play DD with 30 lives and never with 20, because NOBODY wants to play.
Ben
May 11th, 2017
I think that the 20 life decision was sensible, and overdue. It was also brave. I really hope they don’t reverse the decision.
At least the ban list makes sense compared with the Wizards one.
All those players flocking to Wizards’ 1v1 Commander must surely be zealously ignoring how bad their ban list is, and/or giving them too much credit that they will learn what principles a 1v1 singleton format SHOULD be built around.
I mean, banning Griselbrand??!!! Ooh scary demon 8-drop :S
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