u/Mammoth-Refuse-6489

We banned Voltron so that OTHER people can gain an advantage; we don't play with Commander damage so that OTHER people can stop dying so easily. It isn't for ME, it is so that THEY have a chance.

We used to play 7 card draw and with commander damage. It was worse for them. We only recently switched to 10 card starting hands and I steadily lose about 50% of games now. There is SOME balance now, at least... and Voltron is the WORST strategy to employ against me. You reveal your only real line of play, and I'll disrupt it and leave you salty af.

Strategy wins. They play me with my decks and can't win. I build decks for them, and they can't beat me with them... but I'll turn right around and beat them with it. Commander IS the ultimate game of skill when it comes to MTG, and it astounds me how many people don't see that.

There are no preset rules, and you keep pretending that there are. Commander is the ultimate legacy format because you can use practically anything. So? Use anything. Beat me with the exact same deck. I don't proxy anything I don't own... but proxy something up, I don't care. I'll take on all comers.

If I lose? Respect. If I win? Don't cry. Those are the rules.

As for cEDH decks against my homebrews? I beat cEDH decks more than you'd think. You act like just because a cEDH deck exists, that it auto pops off and wins, just because. I've whooped cEDH decks (Winota Stax, Atraxa Food Chain) with Green Stomp, because cEDH-minded folk only know certain styles of play and don't account for non-cEDH decks. I've beaten a cEDH deck more than once (Urza infinite mana) - three times in a row, at her insistence in fact, to 'prove it wasn't a fluke' - with friggin energy counters, man. Energy counters/proliferate, with Vorel of the Hull Clade as my Commander.

Just say you like a softer style of play, instead of insisting that there are these 'rules' that don't exist like brackets and fun. Sweating it out, pulling victory from the jaws of defeat, discovering interactions you didn't anticipate and using it to win it all, pivoting your gameplan at a moment's notice to foil their plans - you aren't getting that with 'weak skeleton loops go wheeee' and we both know it.

Come grind it out, dawg.

Just a thought for discussion. What would be three things which you think would go onto an alternative game changers lists which are not cards, but gameplay concepts? Not mechanics, because we already know Eminence was a mistake, but things which happen during play which warps the game.

Here's mine:

1. King making via poor threat assessment. It sucks to have to watch the obvious threat win after being killed because someone wrongly assessed you as the threat because you had more mana rocks than them.
2. New players choosing remove on sight commanders. I have to deal with these commanders, which is OK. However, new players can't handle the power. Either I lose, which would never happen if they were playing fair cards, or I win, which is sad for them.
3. Players reading every line of text to me on every card they cast. I have places to be and hearts to break. I don't have time for you to read [[Swords to Plowshares]] to me, I know I get a basic land.

No, countermagic is not "bad" in EDH; git gud

Countermagic is purely a showcase of "I know what I'm doing" so to speak, in the sense that yes, the general concept of countermagic is bad if you only think of it as a 1 for 1. That being said, you have to be really smart to understand cards do other things. For example, countering a draw spell is like countering every spell they can't draw, which is more than 1. Also, trading your counterspell for a board wipe; that's like every card on your board. That's more than 1.

The TLDR, control can work in EDH but only if you're smart. It cannot just be played willy nilly like aggro or battlecruiser. You have to know every card in every deck, and that's only a skill that the greatest among us can have.