Landscape with the Chateau de Marimont by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625). Skithyrix, the Blight Dragon by Chippy.
Last week I almost wrote about this topic for my weekly blog post. I actually had a whole bunch written but decided instead to scrap what I had and write a "Welcome to Commander" piece for all the new players coming into the format. While I think it came out well, just a few days after that went up I downloaded the latest Commanderin' podcast and was treated to a twenty minute discussion about starting your own EDH league.
So much for being ahead of the curve... In truth, I've already written extensively about running an EDH league, but I think this is an excellent time to again write about what I've learned over the past few years. While I'm going to go way beyond what was covered in the Commanderin' podcast, I still highly encourage you to check it out. They produce great content and are doing a lot to help support the community.
One of the biggest things I want to say is that if you have any interest in running an EDH league or just making sure there is a day and time at your LGS where you can guarantee you'll be able to get games in - now is the best time to start one up. New players are getting into the format. New precon decks are easy to find. If you start one up now, you've got a few months to get a handle on what's involved before you launch into the 2018 season! I'm telling you - now is the time to do it and if your experience is anything like mine has been, you won't regret it one bit.
Today I've got 10 things to go over about what I've learned running an EDH league. There is no "one way" to run one, so more than anything I just hope that in some way I can either help you get one started or help you make your current league better. Keep it Free, with a Monthly & a Year-End Winner I am a huge proponent of keeping EDH leagues free. If players are paying to play, there will be an expectation of prize support. If there is prize support, all arguments against having degenerate top tier decks go out the window. When there is money on the line, you can't expect players to not bring the most brutal, cutthroat decks they can possibly build. That can easily lead to the league becoming a place where new and casual players find the level of competition completely overwhelming. Many players will resent the feeling of having to pay for the inevitable beatings they'll be getting. Salt will flow. Tempers will flare. A minority will thrive and a lot of players will come and go, not wanting to just hand their lunch money to the schoolyard bully every week. Competitive players may find this a ridiculous assessment, but I think the reality is that most players play a midrange game that borders more on the casual than on the competitive. If you keep it free, you may still have degenerate decks and turn 3 wins. Having those decks show up occasionally is a good thing. It gives players a fuller understanding of what's out there in the format. EDH is a big enough place for both top tier decks and midrange decks and in all likelihood you will have both cEDH and EDH players show up to play. I like tracking points for each month and also for the year. If you have a player dominate play and win every game for an entire month, hopefully you can encourage them to switch things up once they've won the month. Four or five weeks of getting crushed isn't that bad and with that fast a turnover there's lots of room for variety and for different people to make their mark on the league over the course of a year. With a longer league cycle you can lose players if the meta gets degenerate and casual players simply don't see the point in continuing to participate. With a shorter, monthly cycle there's always hope that next month the current top player will change their deck up and games will be more fun for everyone. I do think there is a place for cEDH and a place for pay-in tournaments with prize support.
Ideally I'd run a free weekly league and maybe a monthly cEDH tournament, so your spikes have a place to go to do their thing. That way hopefully the league environment won't go in a direction that's toxic to newer and more casual players. There will always be that EDH / cEDH divide, and both sides will always feel strongly about the way they like to play, but if you want to have your league grow and bring in new players, keep it free. Keep it Simple I've seen some amazingly complicated EDH League scoresheets in my short time in the format. League organizers are great at thinking of long, intricate lists of crazy scenarios and situations which can earn you extra points, but I would urge you to start simple and keep a few things in mind when you plan out your league's scoring system. Especially when you're starting out, you don't want to scare away new players.
Have easy-to understand points that can be earned by doing basic things that you do in an EDH game. Eliminating opponents, casting your commander from the command zone, helping to kill someone or maybe saving someone from being killed, and having the most of something (life total, creatures, lands, etc...) are all simple and easy to compete for. Have enough categories to keep it interesting but not so many that it's a chore to have to deal with during or after the game.
Whatever you choose to go with for achievement points will impact the feeling of the league. Keep that in mind and keep in mind that if you incentivize backstabbing and cutthroat play you'll have a very different league than if you reward cooperation or "group hug" types of plays. Of course, you could always choose to reward both. One way that scoring systems sometimes get out of hand is when too many points get added in. The bottom line is that you need to make sure your point categories are both easy to understand AND easy to achieve. If you've got 50 different types of points you can earn, but 30 of them are so weird that in reality nobody is probably going to achieve them, you might as well just have 20 points on your scoresheet. It would be simpler, less intimidating and just as much fun for the players.
They aren't coming for your scoresheets or your point system - they're coming for the fun of playing EDH. Don't let your system get in the way of that. Having a system that's simple isn't the same thing as having a scoresheet that's simple. Put time and effort into making your physical scoresheet easy to understand and fill out. Make sure it's not intimidating or confusing and don't forget the little things like a place to put your name and the commander you're running. Doublecheck totals when you go over the scoresheets. Players will screw up even the simplest things. Don't assume they're trying to cheat to get higher points - assume the best and let them know if they're messing it up. Tracking the points is something you can do on paper, in MS Excel or even on Google Sheets. The league I run is managed on Google Sheets (2017 Rankings: http://bit.ly/2jImW5x). You can see my own meager point totals in there. The ability to share it online with the rest of the league is fantastic, but it's also worth posting leaders in the store. It'll help get people excited about playing and will help promote the league to other patrons of the store if you play at a LGS. What matters most is that it's accurate and as transparent as possible. You never, ever want a player to doubt the legitimacy of the point totals you're coming up with, and you should be willing and able to share the sheets so players can doublecheck your work anytime they like. Keep it Commander I feel pretty strongly that you should do everything you can to keep the league rules in line with the basic commander rules established by the rules committee. This means no banning cards, decks or strategies. Don't outlaw "going infinite" or say that Rest In Peace isn't allowed because it shuts down lots of decks that use the graveyard. You and everyone else in the league are going to lose lots and lots of games and sometimes those losses will feel unfair. That's just the way it is in this format. Some days you can't beat a card, a deck or a strategy. Every problem card can be beaten. That doesn't mean it'll be easy but you'll do yourself a favor by doing it the hard way rather than just changing the rules so you have an easier time in your games. There will be times where certain decks dominate play, but over time you should find that those decks come and go and spikes will get bored winning the same way all the time. The meta will adjust to what's strongest at the moment and problems will sort themselves out if you let them. If you're the league organizer, if you get salty when you lose games AND if you're the one that wants to ban stuff, you need to take a step back and look at yourself. Every single time players come together under your guidance to play games of Commander, on some level YOU ARE WINNING, even if you don't actually win a single game. You are doing something for everyone and in a way you are more impressive than every spike that walks in the door and blows away a table. Take pride in your role as the one making the league happen, take comfort in the fact that you probably do win the occasional game (even if it's not as often as you like), and resist your baser urges to warp the league in ways that aren't that healthy. Also - run more removal. Everyone should run more removal. Two Rounds are Better Than One One thing I've noticed about playing EDH, both casually and in a league is that having more than one chance to get a win is really good. If you play one round each week, someone that has a few bad weeks in a row might easily just give up and decide to spend their free time doing something else on the day your league runs. Having two rounds means all the players who had a bad first round will have one more chance to have a good league game in that day - even if they don't get a win. They might wind up having two bad rounds, but there's something about getting that extra chance that can make the losses a little easier to digest. EDH games can take forever, so it's smart to have a time cap on your rounds. We use 2 hours because we have a 5 hour window in our LGS' schedule and that leaves us with a little extra wiggle room. I would suggest that you be strict about not playing extra rounds if games end quickly. You don't want to have to explain to someone that they lost the lead in points because the one week they couldn't make it, you were able to play 3 more rounds than on any other week. Keep it consistent and fair so players know what to expect. You might be tempted to mess with the make-up of your pods to help ensure that new players don't get stuck with spikes. Maybe having the round 1 winners have to face each other in round 2 would help mitigate power level differences for your league. Whatever you do, definitely work with the players and get their input. No decision you make will please everyone but so long as they can see you working to try to make the league a fun place to play, they'll probably keep coming back. Keep the Salt Down
Players getting salty is a constant problem in Magic, and EDH is no exception. Your league may attract players who are particularly prone to bad sportsmanship. While you can do a lot to help exacerbate this problem, to some extent it is out of your hands. There are a few things you can do to try to help keep salt down. Talk to your problem players. You'll find that people are consistent. Folks who get salty will get salty regularly. Encourage them to try to step away and cool down if they find they're getting really mad. Ask them to try to play decks and strategies that are less inclined to leave them pissed off all the time. Some decks are just better or worse at helping you to have a good game experience. Help them to become better deckbuilders and players so they are less often having bad moments where they get pissed off and exhibit bad sportsmanship. There are other under-appreciated factors in players getting salty, like sleep, low blood sugar and emotional issues related to other stuff going on in their life. You may not be able to tuck them in at night or make sure things are OK with their new girlfriend or boyfriend, but you can help encourage players to not play on an empty stomach or in a bad mood from the outset. I go so far as to bake cookies the night before our league plays so my guys have something they can munch on to keep their blood sugar from getting too low. Homemade baked goods go a long way towards encouraging a community feel and keeping blood sugar from getting low, but you should do what works for you. Just don't ever assume that you can't do anything to help your players to maintain a level of good sportsmanship. Reward Sportsmanship Going out of your way to reward good sportsmanship is worth doing in an EDH league. This is a social format. We play with multiple opponents and while the overt goal is to "win", the bottom line is that everyone is going to want to have a good time whether they win or lose. Your spikes might not like such an overt focus on "fun" but if the majority of players aren't having fun in your league, it will surely fail. If your games are seeing constant examples of bad sportsmanship my bet is that your league will be headed for failure, not headed for success. While it might seem like an impossible task to quantify and reward good sportsmanship, it well worth trying to do just that. The problem is that everyone will have a different idea of what good sportsmanship looks like. I would advise you to somehow incorporate into your points system a way for players to directly award each other points. In our league each player awards 5 points to their opponents, with the further restriction that they have to divide these points between at least 2 players. Our scoresheet explicitly encourages them to award these points for sportsmanship. Because it is impossible to get into someone's mind, we pretty much have to allow them to award those points in whatever way they choose. Can it be abused? Of course. Is it worth doing anyways? I sure think so. The result has been that the players everyone loves to have at their table do get extra points for being enjoyable people to play with, and spikes who win but treat other players like crap tend to get fewer of these extra points. The spikes and table winners invariably still dominate the rankings, as they probably should, but our system has empowered casual players to have a say in where some of the points get awarded. The ability to have even a modicum of control over another player's point total is a powerful thing. It means if you get blown out by a combo player who is not just ruthless but also rude - you may not be able to steal their win from them but you can have a "from hell's heart I stab at thee" moment and give them zero extra sportsmanship points. That may not seem like much, but it makes you feel slightly less powerless in the moment, and I firmly believe it helps to keep losers getting overly salty. Be the Face of the League
When you run your EDH league, players will associate you with it very closely. When you run it AND play in it, you have an added responsibility that I cannot overstate. You are the face of your league. The way you comport yourself will have a huge affect on how your players view and enjoy your league. Congratulate an opponent that just screwed you over. High-five someone who countered your wincon. Learn to revel in the accomplishments of the players who do better than you, and learn to be humble when you have your own great moments. Be the player that everyone would like to have playing at their table because you exude goodwill and a love of the game, the league and the community you are at least partially responsible for. When you have bad moments or get salty - own those moments and apologize for them. Anyone who cares enough about this format to consider starting a league is probably the kind of person who likes to win, at least occasionally. Most folks who care about being competitive probably tend to have times where they get overly frustrated at a run of bad games or bad luck. It goes with the territory. Forgive yourself, apologize if you were rude or unsportsmanlike, and try harder to keep your temper in check.
Whether or not you like it, you're going to be a role model for some of your players and an example of what kind of league it is for anyone walking in the door for the first time. Take that role seriously. It's Not "Your" League I've been calling the EDH league you might run "your" league, but it really isn't.
This is no more your league than anyone else's because without the player base there are no games and there is no league. This means you need to always remember that it isn't "your" league, it's "our" league. You are working to build a place where everyone has fun - not just you. This extends to things like rules changes. You might think you know what's best for the league, but I would encourage you to have a process by which players vote on any changes to the scoring system. Your idea of what might be "fun" could result in a quarter of your players just disappearing on you if you guessed wrong and you hadn't included them in the decision-making process. When it comes to making decisions about stuff like points and rules it is also OK to have some things you're not willing to change. In the league I run I've declared that the one item not up for a vote is the ability to award sportsmanship points. I don't care how players decide to dole those points out, but I don't plan on ever allowing a vote where our "Gen Points" can be removed from our system. In truth, they make my job as league organizer harder than it needs to be, but they are off the table whenever the topic of changing our scoring system comes up. Celebrate Accomplishments
One of the key parts of community building is making sure people not only have a time to come together to play, but also that they have a time to come together to celebrate. Our league recognizes each month's winner, but it's a free league so there aren't prizes and there's no payout. You just get bragging rights for having won. You'd be surprised how much that can motivate people. We also have a yearly potluck where I give out awards based upon various point totals. It's a time to come together, play some pickup games, have some food and recognize our best players. In our first year it became apparent to me that as a player and as the league organizer I was going to have a built-in advantage by being there every single week.
It's hard to overstate how helpful it is to pretty much not miss a single week of play over the course of a whole year. I'm also not that terrible at EDH, so I was able to win the top point total.
I also awarded prizes to the players with the highest average point totals and I made sure to emphasize that having a high average is much more impressive than my own accomplishment of showing up every week and racking up the most points. Because our point system included "Gen Points", awarded by opponents, we had a way to award not only the most competitive players, but also the ones who exhibited the best sportsmanship over the course of the year. As I've explained, the awarding of "Gen Points" isn't strictly done based upon sportsmanship but it's as close as I think we can get in a point-based system.
Final Thoughts
If this didn't seem like a very straightforward explanation of how to run a league, I'd again like to encourage you to check out what I've written here on this site about running a league. There's more detail at that link (also found at the "League" menu option above) than I've put into this blog post, though some of it will be pretty much the same.
If you're interested in looking more closely at the scoresheet we use at NexGen Comics in Pelham, NH, click on the scoresheet pic to the right. It should bring up the PDF of the sheet we'll be using this month.
If you had been enjoying my writing about deckbuilding, I should give you an update.
I have been working on decks over the past few weeks and am happy to tell you that not only have I finally started reworking my Cats and Dragons decks, but I built a Wasitora deck and may also build a Nazahn deck. I also still have a Ramos obsession. Ramos won one of his two games last week and yesterday and at least for the moment I'm at the top of our league's monthly rankings. In the past week I've added in Mind's Dilation, Deepglow Skate and Dromoka's Command and I'm struggling to figure out how much more removal I need to add.
My Ur-Dragon deck has been reworked with crazy amounts of Ramp, lots of dragons and Dragonstorm. I haven't added Skittles or Aggravated Assault yet, but have been able to goldfish a turn 3 Ur-Dragon thank to burgeoning and bounce lands. I expect it to be a strong midrange deck.
My Arahbo deck was going to be turned into a Saskia, Crazy Cat Lady deck but I haven't done that yet. It has had the equipment theme pulled out and more cats added in. I'm trying to focus on ramp and using Arahbo's ability when on the field, and have added in Triumph of the Hordes, Privileged Position, three Ajani planeswalkers and a bunch of other good stuff. Somewhere I've got a Lost Leonin that needs to be found and crammed in here too.
I have taken apart my Ghave deck to build Wasitora. I expect it to be weaker than the other decks but it should be able to hang at midrange tables. The goal of the deck is just to produce cat dragon tokens because they're adorable. I'm sure eventually it will win a game. So far it's been fun but hasn't really been able to keep up with the best deck at the table in the few games it has played.
My last project from the C2017 release is probably going to involve taking apart Zurgo Helmsmasher, taking all the good equipment from the Cats deck and building something new. I'm not sure if it will be led by Nazahn, Zurgo, Saskia or maybe someone else entirely. I've got the Kaldra cycle in a binder and would love an excuse to get that into a deck, but just don't know for sure which way I want to go with it.
As for other C2017 cards, I am going to eventually put the Hammer of Nazahn into Narset, Fractured Identity (and Leveler) into Zedruu, and the green Curse into Yisan. I haven't gotten to it yet but it's definitely on my to-do list.
That's all I've got for you today. I'll try to get my new decks up on TappedOut.net so I can share the lists with you. I hope you found something in here helpful and maybe someday I'll be able to visit your LGS, play in your league and give you a bunch of Gen Points!
Thanks for reading & see you next week.
