New to Commander - Ep 17

Thanks Mike Condon for audio engineering @SheldonMenery - 14:36 @MothershipGames - 17:45 @edhrec - 19:41, 21:10, 45:59 @scryfall - 20:43, 36:59, 47:39 @mtgsalvation - 21:30 @archidekt - 21:54, 36:59 @ManabaseCrafter - 34:59 @tappedout - 36:59 @MTG_Arena - 38:27 @commandcast - 45:59, 47:39 @CommandersBrew - 45:59 @commanderinmtg - 45:59 @CMDRCentral - 45:59 @jumbocommander - 47:39 @edhquarters - 47:39 Ep 17 Community Spotlight: Welcome! You’re discovering the BEST format in Magic: the Gathering (We maaaay be biased, but hey) Who is this episode for? We assume that you are at least slightly familiar with Magic. Maybe you played a long time ago, maybe you’re brand new to the game, but you at least know the basic rules. Also, we think veteran players might enjoy listening to this episode, and we certainly hope that anyone out there will send this episode in particular to new players they teach, or anyone who is interested in learning about the greatest Magic format. Main Topic - New to Commander

 

What is Commander?

 

Arguably the MOST popular Magic format of all time! 40 life, multiplayer format, where you have a Legendary creature as your Commander Example: You choose Meren of Clan Nel Toth This means you can play Black Cards, Green Cards, Black AND Green cards, and any number of artifacts you want. You cannot play with White, Blue or Red cards. To further clarify you cannot play with Terminate because it’s got Red in it’s color identity Hybrid mana cards (Ex. Kitchen Finks) are both GREEN and WHITE in terms of color identity. So, Kitchen Finks cannot go in a mono-green deck. Your Commander’s Color Identity determines what cards you’re allowed to play. This means that you can only play ONE of each non-basic land card Commander is a 100 card SINGLETON format SO MANY! Cards all throughout the history of Magic There is a Banned list maintained at: http://mtgcommander.net/rules.php It’s actually a pretty small list, 39 cards at the time of this recording (In ALL the history of Magic) What cards are you allowed to play with?

 

Why is Commander so great?

 

It’s a SOCIAL format! Commander can be a time when you get together with your friends and just have a good time and laugh etc. I’ve made some life-long friends playing Commander The community is Amazing! We constantly see newcomers welcomed with open arms, and folks are always happy to help people become part of this community Ryan likes to play with Other People’s Cards, and built a whole Mono-red deck around it Personal expression! Commander is a format where players can really express themselves through the decks they build and how they play It’s the Battlecruiser format of Magic! Folks can play with the biggest, baddest cards, and there is more game space to have crazy things happen that wouldn’t in a normal game of Magic. Your skill in politics can be just as important as the power level of your deck. This leads to a natural balancing effect, where the power dynamics shift as the game goes on You can play super casual, all the way up to cEDH (Explain here that the format started off as Elder Dragon Highlander, a.k.a EDH, and that cEDH stands for Competitive EDH) It’s important to find a playgroup that fits your style, and power level.  There are different levels of power when it comes to Commander

 

How to get started

 

Start with a precon! There’s no better time than now Find out when Commander Night is at your LGS. Decide who your commander is going to be. This can be a favorite legendary character from days past or it could just be a commander who has a mechanic you find interesting. Decide a plan of attack Look for cards that synergize with your commander or just look fun to play with.  Use sites like Scryfall to do searches for specific things (ie. Landfall) If you’re coming up short of a full 100 you can do internet research on sites like edhrec and archidekt for deck lists Remember this is your deck, so build it in a way that will be fun for you and those you play with.  How to decide what cards to put in Zack’s steps to make your first commander deck

 

Tips for a new player

 

Tips from Discord and Twitter go here Ramp and Card draw are the building blocks of Commander Briefly Define Ramp and Card Draw With 40 starting life total, you can usually afford to spend the first few turns ramping. This will allow you to cast bigger cards, more quickly, and have a bigger impact on the game You are usually playing against 3 other opponents. So, for every card you draw, your opponents are collectively drawing 3. Having more card draw can lessen this difference. There are many reasons to want Ramp and Card Draw. Whole episodes can be devoted to these topics, but this is a good place to start Especially for new players coming from other formats that is a weird and unintuitive thing but it's important to understand this or there will be some social tensions and feel bads How the social contract works. Mana curve matters.  Build a deck with a game plan and a direction Threat assessment, or more accurately, how to effectively deal with problem permanents/spells without drawing a ton of hate. How to build a solid mana base/ramp package. Settle on a list before buying singles.  The stack Priority Play removal! Especially for artifacts and enchantments Board Wipes are important, but so is single target removal It’s OK to take time to READ all the cards! Don’t be intimidated by this, even myself as a veteren player, I have to read a card just about every turn of the game! There’s a LOT of cards, and this can be kinda scary, but it’s OK to NOT know everything

 

Resources for learning more

 

So. You’re interested is peeked, and you want to dive deep into this wonderful format, where can you go to learn more? Edhrec.com http://mtgcommander.net/rules.php (pay particular attention to Philosophy of Commander and the social contract: http://mtgcommander.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19170 ) Podcasts: Command Zone, Commanderin, Commander’s Brew, CMDR Central Youtube - Game Knights, Jumbo Commander, Commander’s Quarters Scryfall

 

Summary

 

Commander is great! And now is a great time to be a Commander player with the new C19 decks just having come out. It’s a fun, Social format, to share with friends If you are new to Commander, let us know! We’d love to help you embrace this amazing format Thanks for watching! Please remember to Like and Subscribe, and you can follow us on Twitter, @commandersocial, @greenegeek, @z4ck38. Keep it Social! Commander Social Intro and Outro Theme
Raindrop by Declan DP https://soundcloud.com/declandp Licensing Agreement 2.0 http://www.declandp.info/music-licensing
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/LbIb9_5_qNE Komiku - Battle of Pogs https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ Zack Gets it Together Theme Consider becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/commandersocial You can check us out at commandersocial.com YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/CommanderSocial You can email us directly at [email protected] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/commandersocial On twitter @commandersocial twitch.tv/greenegeek Ryan individually @greenegeek Zack individually @z4ck38 Contact Info © Copyright 2019 Leaky Dinghy, LLC

Thanks Mike Condon for audio engineering @SheldonMenery - 14:36 @MothershipGames - 17:45 @edhrec - 19:41, 21:10, 45:59 @scryfall - 20:43, 36:59, 47:39 @mtgsalvation - 21:30 @archidekt - 21:54, 36:59 @ManabaseCrafter - 34:59 @tappedout - 36:59 @MTG_Arena - 38:27 @commandcast - 45:59, 47:39 @CommandersBrew - 45:59 @commanderinmtg - 45:59 @CMDRCentral - 45:59 @jumbocommander - 47:39 @edhquarters - 47:39 Ep 17 Community Spotlight: Welcome! You’re discovering the BEST format in Magic: the Gathering (We maaaay be biased, but hey) Who is this episode for? We assume that you are at least slightly familiar with Magic. Maybe you played a long time ago, maybe you’re brand new to the game, but you at least know the basic rules. Also, we think veteran players might enjoy listening to this episode, and we certainly hope that anyone out there will send this episode in particular to new players they teach, or anyone who is interested in learning about the greatest Magic format. Main Topic - New to Commander

 

What is Commander?

 

Arguably the MOST popular Magic format of all time! 40 life, multiplayer format, where you have a Legendary creature as your Commander Example: You choose Meren of Clan Nel Toth This means you can play Black Cards, Green Cards, Black AND Green cards, and any number of artifacts you want. You cannot play with White, Blue or Red cards. To further clarify you cannot play with Terminate because it’s got Red in it’s color identity Hybrid mana cards (Ex. Kitchen Finks) are both GREEN and WHITE in terms of color identity. So, Kitchen Finks cannot go in a mono-green deck. Your Commander’s Color Identity determines what cards you’re allowed to play. This means that you can only play ONE of each non-basic land card Commander is a 100 card SINGLETON format SO MANY! Cards all throughout the history of Magic There is a Banned list maintained at: http://mtgcommander.net/rules.php It’s actually a pretty small list, 39 cards at the time of this recording (In ALL the history of Magic) What cards are you allowed to play with?

 

Why is Commander so great?

 

It’s a SOCIAL format! Commander can be a time when you get together with your friends and just have a good time and laugh etc. I’ve made some life-long friends playing Commander The community is Amazing! We constantly see newcomers welcomed with open arms, and folks are always happy to help people become part of this community Ryan likes to play with Other People’s Cards, and built a whole Mono-red deck around it Personal expression! Commander is a format where players can really express themselves through the decks they build and how they play It’s the Battlecruiser format of Magic! Folks can play with the biggest, baddest cards, and there is more game space to have crazy things happen that wouldn’t in a normal game of Magic. Your skill in politics can be just as important as the power level of your deck. This leads to a natural balancing effect, where the power dynamics shift as the game goes on You can play super casual, all the way up to cEDH (Explain here that the format started off as Elder Dragon Highlander, a.k.a EDH, and that cEDH stands for Competitive EDH) It’s important to find a playgroup that fits your style, and power level.  There are different levels of power when it comes to Commander

 

How to get started

 

Start with a precon! There’s no better time than now Find out when Commander Night is at your LGS. Decide who your commander is going to be. This can be a favorite legendary character from days past or it could just be a commander who has a mechanic you find interesting. Decide a plan of attack Look for cards that synergize with your commander or just look fun to play with.  Use sites like Scryfall to do searches for specific things (ie. Landfall) If you’re coming up short of a full 100 you can do internet research on sites like edhrec and archidekt for deck lists Remember this is your deck, so build it in a way that will be fun for you and those you play with.  How to decide what cards to put in Zack’s steps to make your first commander deck

 

Tips for a new player

 

Tips from Discord and Twitter go here Ramp and Card draw are the building blocks of Commander Briefly Define Ramp and Card Draw With 40 starting life total, you can usually afford to spend the first few turns ramping. This will allow you to cast bigger cards, more quickly, and have a bigger impact on the game You are usually playing against 3 other opponents. So, for every card you draw, your opponents are collectively drawing 3. Having more card draw can lessen this difference. There are many reasons to want Ramp and Card Draw. Whole episodes can be devoted to these topics, but this is a good place to start Especially for new players coming from other formats that is a weird and unintuitive thing but it's important to understand this or there will be some social tensions and feel bads How the social contract works. Mana curve matters.  Build a deck with a game plan and a direction Threat assessment, or more accurately, how to effectively deal with problem permanents/spells without drawing a ton of hate. How to build a solid mana base/ramp package. Settle on a list before buying singles.  The stack Priority Play removal! Especially for artifacts and enchantments Board Wipes are important, but so is single target removal It’s OK to take time to READ all the cards! Don’t be intimidated by this, even myself as a veteren player, I have to read a card just about every turn of the game! There’s a LOT of cards, and this can be kinda scary, but it’s OK to NOT know everything

 

Resources for learning more

 

So. You’re interested is peeked, and you want to dive deep into this wonderful format, where can you go to learn more? Edhrec.com http://mtgcommander.net/rules.php (pay particular attention to Philosophy of Commander and the social contract: http://mtgcommander.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19170 ) Podcasts: Command Zone, Commanderin, Commander’s Brew, CMDR Central Youtube - Game Knights, Jumbo Commander, Commander’s Quarters Scryfall

 

Summary

 

Commander is great! And now is a great time to be a Commander player with the new C19 decks just having come out. It’s a fun, Social format, to share with friends If you are new to Commander, let us know! We’d love to help you embrace this amazing format Thanks for watching! Please remember to Like and Subscribe, and you can follow us on Twitter, @commandersocial, @greenegeek, @z4ck38. Keep it Social! Commander Social Intro and Outro ThemeRaindrop by Declan DP https://soundcloud.com/declandp Licensing Agreement 2.0 http://www.declandp.info/music-licensing Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/LbIb9_5_qNE Komiku - Battle of Pogs https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ Zack Gets it Together Theme Consider becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/commandersocial You can check us out at commandersocial.com YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/CommanderSocial You can email us directly at [email protected] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/commandersocial On twitter @commandersocial twitch.tv/greenegeek Ryan individually @greenegeek Zack individually @z4ck38 Contact Info © Copyright 2019 Leaky Dinghy, LLC