![]() ![]() The first rule I decided on was forcing my players to choose commanders of different colors to make up their finished deck. I was hoping for my cube to feel as close to a regular EDH game as I could manage. Tinybones, Trinket Thief | Illustration by Jason Rainville Start with two different-colored commander “decks” With a set of commanders to build around and a framework of mechanics to focus, on it was time to start planning what a finished deck was going to look like. I eventually settled on about 10 different themes I wanted to design around including tokens, artifacts, +1/+1 counters, graveyard interaction, Voltron, bigstuff, and more. I made sure to pick very general mechanics that allowed me to focus each of the decks on having a unique playstyle related to the commander while still leaving opportunity for synergies between different commanders. I enjoy playing powerful cards with big, flashy, flavorful effects like Quietus Spike and Disrupt Decorum, and I knew I could make a more aggro-focused meta that enabled these kinds of cards to really shine. With the plan of making an accessible EDH experience, I set about planning what mechanics I wanted to use. I started sifting through the newly spoiled commanders to find four from each color that had some similar themes I could focus on to create synergy for the decks and establish how I wanted my cube to play. Now I could design smaller decks based around each of them, and my friends and I would just pick two different decks, smash ’em together, and start playing. ![]() But the release of mono-colored partner commanders like Gilanra, Caller of Wirewood and Tormod, the Desecrator was a game changer for me. I spent a few weeks playing with the idea of making a Commander draft cube for my friends and I, but my buddies weren’t super excited when they found out it’d take an hour or more of drafting before we even started to play. When Commander Legends spoilers started releasing, I knew exactly what I wanted to work on: Commander Jumpstart. ![]() Thriving Heath | Illustration by Alayna Danner There was only one thing we could do: make EDH more accessible. The burden of knowledge for such a complicated game was just too much. Some people in the group told me that although they enjoyed playing Magic overall, they just didn’t enjoy playing against the decks that the veterans had been brewing for years and knew inside and out. The divide in game knowledge was just too much after the first few games. When tutors came up, they had no idea which cards were part of a winning strategy and struggled to close out games. The newer players who didn’t know the EDH meta struggled with threat assessment and had a hard time deciding when to play big cards. Everyone understood the basic rules and the first games went smoothly with everyone enjoying themselves, but we quickly realized we had an issue: Thankfully most of my buddies are nerdy enough that I was able to talk a few of them into playing some EDH online, so we set a date and all met up virtually through Tabletop Simulator.Ī few of us MTG veterans brought extra decklists for our friends who were newer to the game and we set about getting our gaming session underway. With the pandemic in full swing, my friends and I couldn’t meet up in person to hang out anymore and we needed a new way to get together and socialize. In the summer of 2020, I was faced with a dilemma that I’m sure many of you can relate to. The coolest play? Using Tezzeret to make Marionette Master a 9/1 to drain harder when you don't have 5+ saccable artifacts lying around.Inniaz, the Gale Force | Illustration by Livia Prima I'm not sold on the countermagic because the deck is otherwise very tap-out, other than the cycling lands, so it's hard to hold up mana for them and they might be better off used on other slots, such as cheap countermagic like Dispel and Spell Pierce to fight off opposing stuff trying to interfere with the nonsense. Not a bad start!įaced UW Monument (2-1), UW Approach (2-1), UB Pirates (2-1) and BW Vampires (2-0). So I came around to testing this concept out today and ran 4-0. ![]()
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