Casual Playgroup Rules: How to optimize your playing experience

Commander is a format meant to be fun and casual, but that does not mean it can’t become competitive and high-powered. In order to keep the game fun for everyone the best simple thing you have to do is discussing what your friends like or hate. Of course I’d suggest following the Official Commander Rules, as they are a good start on what is allowed and what isn’t and in my opinion the rules are there for a good reason.

 

As a multiplayer format, commander has its own politics and winning alone is not the only prize. Fun and a memorial game experience can be achieved even if someone can’t achieve victory as long as they’re having a good time and they can play in they way they intend to do. Everything is allowed as long as your playgroup is cool with it. That’s why playing mass land destruction and prison or stax are not very popular. Talking with your playgroup about the power level is crucial as in general every game feels more fun and fair if the decks are somewhat balanced. That’s one of the main things the playgroup rules try to address, by creating a more balanced environment.

 

That being said, some suggestions for a healthy and fun game are:

 

 

1. 1. The first rule is that there are no rules. Ask, Listen, Discuss, Decide, Playtest, Repeat.

1. 1. Discuss preferred power level. Take a look on the Power level Template. In general decks with too low power level (1-2) and decks with too high power level (9-10) should only play with equals for a better gameplay experience. From power level 3-8, decks will probably have no problem to compete against each other, but some adjustment might be recommended. The closer the gap on power level, the better and more competitive the games can be.

1. 1. Discuss preferred budget. Although budget decks can be of top power, that is an exception. Some of the strongest cards of the format are found only in budgetless decks as they are so expensive that a casual player cannot afford them. Limiting some cards depending on their budget is another way of further adjusting power level. Some groups might have a total budget limit on the decks or on individual cards. For example playing with a total budget of maximum 300-400$ can exclude some cEDH staples while allowing an astounding number of options. A limitation like “no cards with cost >100$” can also achieve a similar goal. We’re talking about extremely expensive exceptions here, but cutting those might make a difference since some specific cards are so overpowered that they ruin game balance and in the end they make games less fun (unless everyone has access to such power as stated above). More limitations can also expand creativity.

1. 1. Avoid Mass Land Destruction (MLD). Mass Land Destruction gives the person with the best board state a huge advantage; he/she either wins or makes the game take forever. This makes the games distinctly less fun.

1. 1. Avoid multiple tax cards. Tax is a term that is used to describe spells that stop an opponent from doing something unless they pay a price. Using some tax cards is quite fine, but building a whole strategy/deck about taxing can make games too slow.

1. 1. Avoid heavy Stax. Stax is a strategy of resource denial that uses permanents with abilities that prevent players from performing actions in the game. For many it means a prison deck with recursive locks. As always the least popular in particular are stax decks that attack the opponents’ mana base.

1. 1. Discuss Exceptions from the rules. The rules are in fact suggestions, so it’s not always the best practice to follow them blindly (see rule number 1). In my humble opinion exceptions should be made if everyone agrees with it.

 

For example limitations on card budget are only there to prevent some overpowered cards that are legal to ruin the balance, but many times running one or more particular cards that cost over the budget, is not so impactful on the game balance if their use is not abused. For example is someone is lucky enough to own a Bayou (with cost more than 400$) I would not have problem to let him run it in a game where the budget of individual cards is <100$ as in my opinion that card alone would not disrupt game balance. But if one would like to run 10 or more lands with cost above the house rule, then that would give him/her a clear advantage against the opponents that have a mana base with most lands to have an average cost of 2$.

 

Another kind of exception from the rules is about some particular cards and rules about them. Although playgroups can ask for everything, I only support a few exceptions that seem fair. One in particular exception that I used to run in one of my decks is about Brothers Yamazaki and having an EDH house rule that states that you can have two of these in your deck (but not the same brother). Those cards have the same name so they have a problem with the singleton rule (but on the battlefield the “legend rule” doesn’t apply to them by official text). They are not the same card as they are meant to be…brothers. Each card has its own artwork and there were build to be played together and support each other. But the time they were printed, commander didn’t exist as a format, so the card name that they had in common was not a problem. Breaking the rule on these two seems the right thing to do, it is not something that breaks the game in any way and it is not even playing the same creature. I believe one day even the official rules might implement an exception about them, as they are cool, not overpowered, lore wise and visual stunning to be played together.

 

Another rule many playgroups decide to not follow is about the play rule “Parts of abilities which bring other traditional card(s) you own from outside the game into the game (such as Living Wish; Spawnsire of Ulamog; Karn, the Great Creator; Wish) do not function in Commander”. This particular rule has meaning in tournaments as commander decks have no sideboard. But in casual games, there is no reason to follow such a rule and if the playgroup agrees, those can still function as intended, either by allowing a sideboard or by just searching your entire collection!

 

If everyone is having a great time then you know that the rules are set right.