EDH/Commander is one of the more popular formats around our shop. If you are like me, you enjoy the ability to play a less competitive format at times. Taking a break and socializing with my friends via a game of Commander has long been a past time of mine. Unfortunately as the format has gotten more popular it has also gotten more cutthroat. I have watched the meta at our shop shift significantly over the past several years. Gone are the days of wacky fun slow Commander games, now is the time of Spikey McCombostein. Showing up to a game with a deck that is not tier 1 and getting destroyed by turn 4 because someone has ramped into some unanswerable/infinite board-state is not my definition of fun anymore. I have been that guy myself, and I understand why people do it, but as I have spent more time playing in a social setting I have less desire to be number one and place more emphasis on overall group enjoyment.
Seems like just about everyone knows about Tiny Leaders these days, and if you don’t well then HERE you go. Along with a large portion of Commander players around our shop I was excited to try out this new format. It seemed like a really fun and creative way to play EDH with some new strategies and decks being viable with a 3CMC and below format. What I had not anticipated was the level of competitiveness that would be involved with said format. It was basically Mini-Legacy. Once again I felt out of place trying to play a “fun” deck in a hostile environment.
Thing is, everyone is entitled to their version of fun, different strokes for different folks and all that. So instead of trying to force the shop meta into something it doesn’t want to be, we have taken it upon ourselves to bring that whimsical feeling back to Commander. Sitting around trying to find a solution to our hyper competitive environment, fellow TEG employee Chris Kreitzman and I came up with this…
TIMMY LEADERS!
Quite obviously a play on words with Tiny Leaders and going the complete opposite direction with the play style. Name open for change but I am fan of this one.
150 Card – Multiplayer Format
Players start at 60 Life
21 Commander damage is lethal
10 Infect damage is lethal
All spells must be FOUR Converted Mana Cost and up. Any “X” spells must be 4CMC as well before the X cost, and any split cards must have at least one 4CMC or greater side.
Ban List includes original EDH ban list plus these extras
- Tooth and Nail
- Omniscience
- Smokestack
- Test of Endurance
- Ancient Tomb
- Felidar Sovereign
*further revisions to be made*
We are still play testing some cards but these were our first and obvious choices after a few games. Infect and commander damage stay the same for the time being.
There is one major component to this format that makes it slightly different in nature than “normal” magic. This format is less about winning, and more about having a reason to play all the big fun spells that you have always wanted to play but could never get away with in a normal game. Making weird interactions instead of trying to beat your opponents in the most efficient way possible. Think something feels overpowered? Don’t play it! Try to control yourself and see what new ways you can come up with to make your opponents scratch their heads or laugh uncontrollably as they marvel at your wacky stack of triggers. Avoid the strategies that make large mutliplayer games un-fun i.e. Mass land destruction or infinite combos that wrap the game up instantly.
Here is an idea of what a deck looks like!
Thraxifundar
Commander: Thraximundar
Lands: 60
- Volcanic Island
- Underground Sea
- Badlands
- Blood Crypt
- Steam Vents
- Watery Grave
- Underground River
- Sulfurous Springs
- Shivan Reef
- Blackcleave Cliffs
- Darkslick Shores
- Sulfur Falls
- Drowned Catacomb
- River of Tears
- Lavaclaw Reaches
- Command Tower
- Crumbling Necropolis
- Barren Moor
- Lonely Sandbar
- Forgotten Cave
- Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
- Shiza, Death’s Storehouse
- Bojuka Bog
- Halimar Depths
- Polluted Delta
- Marsh Flats
- Arid Mesa
- Scalding Tarn
- Flooded Strand
- Temple of the False God
- Homeward Path
- High Market
- Buried Ruin
- Kher Keep
- Hall of the Bandit Lord
- Tectonic Edge
- Phyrexia’s Core
- Swamp x 8
- Island x 8
- Mountain x 7
Artifacts: 12
- Ur-Golem’s Eye
- Tower of Fortunes
- Akroma’s Memorial
- Staff of Nin
- Spine of Ish Sah
- Vedalken Orrery
- Gilded Lotus
- Thran Dynamo
- Teferi’s Puzzle Box
- Storm Cauldron
- Dreamstone Hedron
- Quicksilver Amulet
Planeswalkers: 6
- Liliana of the Dark Realms
- Chandra, the Firebrand
- Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
- Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
- Jace, the Mind Sculptor
- Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Enchantments: 7
Instants & Sorceries: 24
- Hatred
- Slaughter
- Fated Return
- Torrent of Souls
- Consuming Vapors
- Rite of Replication
- All is Dust
- Extract from Darkness
- Dread Return
- Cruel Ultimatum
- Time Warp
- Warp World
- Damnation
- Diabolic Tutor
- Insurrection
- Sever the Bloodline
- Breaking // Entering
- Acquire
- Syphon Mind
- Beseech the Queen
- Living Death
- Whispering Madness
- Barter in Blood
- Time Spiral
Creatures: 40
- Anger
- Reef Worm
- Clever Impersonator
- Phyrexian Metamorph
- Dack’s Duplicate
- Olivia Voldaren
- Sakashima the Impostor
- Glen Elendra Archmage
- Graveborn Muse
- Venser, Shaper Savant
- Heartless Hidetsugu
- Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
- Perplexing Chimera
- Consuming Aberration
- Puppeteer Clique
- Bloodgift Demon
- Djinn of Wishes
- Stitcher Geralf
- Lightning Reaver
- Conquering Manticore
- Wrexial, the Risen Deep
- Grave Titan
- Keiga, the Tide Star
- Skeletal Vampire
- Frost Titan
- Arcanis the Omnipotent
- Sepulchral Primordial
- Sphinx Ambassador
- Diluvian Primordial
- Butcher of Malakir
- Sphinx of Uthuun
- Balefire Dragon
- Kaeravek, the Merciless
- Lord of the Void
- Blood Tyrant
- Bogardan Hellkite
- Prince of Thralls
- Mindleech Mass
- Deep-Sea Kraken
- Greater Gargadon
After several games there are a few things I have noticed. First and foremost, the games are hilarious and very enjoyable. I haven’t had this much fun playing Commander in quite some time. While we only have several decks floating around the shop I hope for that number to increase so I can see what crazy concoctions other players come up with. Board wipes are abundant and necessary as these large spells can develop some very interesting states very quickly. The land count may need to increase, but 60 has been a much more consistent number than the original skimpy count of 53. Depending on your play style and deck construction you may need to play a few more to feed the fire that is this formats hunger for mana. Play big spells! It is fun to cast large mana intensive haymakers every turn, satisfy your inner Timmy. Finally a format where 50 cent rares have a real home.
Deck Construction is fairly easy, despite the high card count. Normally I labor a bit with card choices for a deck, but without the need to optimize each and every spot it was a much more carefree process. I opened up my collection and started to pull any card I felt any slight interest in playing. By the time I was done I was hard-pressed to find spots for all of the cards I wanted to play. I now have a little back stock of cards I want to rotate into the deck eventually after a few more play throughs as I still haven’t had a chance to use a lot of the cards in a game yet.
I hope people see this as a fun new variant for the game we all enjoy. You don’t have to love it, and I don’t expect anyone to adopt it as their main play style but give it a shot. Get a few of your friends/local ruffians to throw a few of these bad boys together for a rumble, you’ll like the way it plays, I guarantee it.
Let me know what you think!
– Brian
Sounds fun! Have you guys considered a rule to have everyone start with 3 basic lands in play that are indestructible? Help out vs. the LD stuff, and get the game rolling a little faster?
Timmy Leaders actually looks insanely fun to play! Being able to have the same turn count as everyone is always a problem in EDH, so with everything being 4cmc to begin with, there’s always going to be a slow start. I would definitely make a deck for this.