A Rest on the Ride by Albert Bierstadt (1863-4). Aven of Enduring Hope by James Ryman.
The idea of "winning over" your opponents today doesn't mean winning the game. It means playing in a way where they want to award you additional points, essentially "winning them over". You can do both if you're good at the game and good at the social side of the game.
As regular readers may know, I run a weekly EDH league that I also play in. We started up in February of 2016 and have been playing every week that our LGS isn't running a PPTQ or Prerelease. Our point system is something I came up with. We have two categories of points which I tally up for each player at the end of the night. One set of points you earn through your actions during the game. These are earned by knocking out opponents, casting your commander, and stuff like that. The other category of points are points you award to your opponents. The first category is called "My Points" and the second is what we call "Gen Points", both as a reference to the store we play in - NexGen Comics in Pelham, NH, and as an abbreviation for "generosity". We ask our players to award 5 gen points to their opponents, with the added limitation that they must be divided between at least 2 opponents. Players are asked to award them to players who make the league a more enjoyable place to play. They can be used to reward opponents for their sportsmanship, sense of humor, good attitude, creative deck, or for any other reason. Anyone who fails to award Gen Points to their opponents isn't welcome back to play with us again - I take this part of the point system very seriously. Today I'm going to explore how these points have worked out so far and look at what we do to reward our top 10 "Gen Points" players.
The Philosophy of Gen Points As a multiplayer, social format of Magic the Gathering, EDH is unique. We deal with challenges and issues that players in other formats rarely have to consider. We are also rewarded in ways that are hard to quantify. The creation of Gen Points is my attempt to find a way to do just that. In theory, the highest gen point earners should be the players that everyone loves to play with. It would be expected that spikes and players overly focused on winning, farming points, or creating "un-fun" boardstates would be less likely to be given Gen Points. It should go without saying that players who are rude or just less adept at navigating social interactions gracefully will get less Gen Points.
From nearly two years of totaling points for our league I can come to some pretty solid conclusions about this part of our point system.
The "My Points" that are available when you play well and eliminate opponents or win tables are definitely greater than the points you might lose from salty opponents not giving you any Gen Points. Our rankings combine both types of points to determine each month's winner. Gen Points haven't turned the league into a place where casuals rule and the spikes are screwed out of being rewarded for being good players. Winning still matters, but the optimal way to win is to win with the kind of attitude that makes players still enjoy playing against you and want to give you Gen Points.
"It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.”
- Grantland Rice
Some players appreciate the ability to screw an opponent out of getting any Gen Points. Sometimes when you lose in a particularly brutal way, it's nice to have something you can do even though the game is lost, and lost badly. It won't change the result but it's usually enough to give you a small amount of comfort in defeat.
"To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."
- Melville
One of the hardest things about losing is how powerless it can make you feel. Gen Points give a player agency, even in the wake of a really bad loss. The "git gud" crowd may find this laughable, but if my goal here is to have a healthy league full of players exciting about playing, it makes all the sense in the world to give them something to help soften the losses.
agency: the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power
- Merriam Webster
We want everyone to have fun, we want winning to still matter, and we want to have all of our players feel empowered, even in a loss. That's the basic philosophy of Gen Points, but how have they worked out?
The Reality of Gen Points
As it turns out, the players who participate the most happen to be the same players who get the most points. For our raw totals, nothing beats showing up regularly. That said - the top Gen Point earners do happen to be players that it seems everyone likes to play with the most.
We do have a player who refuses to award points to the table winner, figuring that they already got enough points on the day. I've tried to explain to him that they're not supposed to be used to screw over the winner, but he is allowed to award them in whatever way he likes. There isn't much I can do about it.
We definitely have players who choose to screw certain types of winners out of any Gen Points. Nobody likes losing and if someone did something particularly brutal to you, it's easy to skip over them when choosing who to give points to.
It's common for players who have cut deals with other opponents in a joint effort to take down another player to award each other extra Gen Points. They may ultimately be trying to defeat everyone at the table, but those moments of collaboration seem to increase those players' enjoyment of the game and it is reflected in their awarding of Gen Points.
We also have a lot of players who habitually spread their points out and don't want to short anyone.
Only once or twice have we had a player be such a bad loser that they didn't turn in a sheet at all. As writing down opponents and awarding Gen Points is the bare minimum I ask for participation in the league, failing to do even that means that you aren't welcome back.
2017 - Gen Ten Cards
At the end of 2016 I decided to do something to reward our top Gen Point winners. I asked our top 10 Gen Point players to each pick a fun, goofy card to put on a list. Those 10 cards, the "Gen Ten" cards, would each be worth an extra "My Point" if played during an EDH League game in 2016.
The goal was to pick cards across all 5 colors and for these cards to not be great cards on their own but to represent fun, goofy cards that everyone likes to see played. They aren't supposed to be good. They're supposed to be amusing.
Cards like Clergy En Vec, One with Nothing and Extract made the list. Some even had caveats, like the foil Foil, and the Werebear that had to have the "Right to bear arms" flavor text. My own contribution was the land Hammerheim, with the caveat that you had to say "Stop!" and pause dramatically, and then say and play "Hammerheim!" It's a reference to an old MC Hammer song, and amuses me greatly every time I have the chance to do it.
The idea was a good one and has somewhat fulfilled its purpose, but Gen Ten points have been fairly rare to see on a scoresheet. I've earned a few but in general players either forget about them or would rather run better cards. I don't like having anything on our scoresheet that doesn't get used, so I started thinking about whether we should do something different for next year.
2018 - Gen Ten Commander Themes
While the Gen Ten cards weren't a failure, they also didn't have the kind of impact i was hoping for. This year I'm going to again do something special for our top Gen Point players, but this time I'm going to do something a little different.
My plan is to ask the top 10 Gen Point players to pick a commander theme to be used for a month in 2018.
We don't do deck checks and I don't ever want to start, so a theme has to be something that can be determined just by looking at the commander.
We have a My Point category called "Tubthumping" that allows you to earn 1 point for each time you cast your commander, up to a maximum of three points per game. The cap is in place so that it doesn't get abused by decks designed to recast their commander again and again.
If you are running a deck that is "on theme" for the month, you will be able to get double the tubthumping points. The alternative would be to award a flat number of points (2?, 3?) if you are playing a deck that matches the months' theme, but tying it to "tubthumping" helps to ensure that players don't just build a deck that doesn't care about their commander in order to get theme points that month. I want to make players actually cast their commander to earn these bonus points.
My plan is to have January and December be normal months with no theme available. That will give players a month to prepare if they want to try to build for the first theme of the year. It also means that the final month won't give out any extra advantages. I want players who are close in point totals at the end of the year to have nothing extra to lean on if they are vying for the top point total of the year.
Imagine the Possibilities
So each of the top 10 Gen Ten players will get to pick a theme and a month when that theme will be used. Some themes might naturally lead to more or less powerful decks being played, but more than anything I'm interested in encouraging creative deckbuilding and variety in our games each month.
I play a different deck for each each month of EDH league, so this will give me an excuse to pick or build one specifically for each month's theme.
The only thing to remember is that players must be able to identify whether a commander matches the theme by just looking at the card itself. No deck checks can be required. All other EDH rules will apply, so no Dark Depths or Soulfire Grand Master in the Command Zone.
Just for fun I'm going to explore some of the themes we might see next year. I have no idea what our top 10 Gen Point player will choose, but I'm looking forward to some interesting months in 2018.
The most obvious criteria is to look at a commander's colors.
Mono-color
This one's easy, though if the pick was just one specific color that would make things much more interesting. I could see rebuilding Purphoros or actually making my Yisan a little more tuned. Having a month of mono-blue would be pretty crazy. You can't force everyone to play counterspell tribal, but requiring on-theme decks to be mono-blue that would probably result in a fairly counter-heavy month. Colorless would also be an interesting option, though I'm not keen on rebuilding the terrible Hope of Ghirapur deck I once experimented with.
Two Color
You could go with 2/c decks but you could also specify just allied or just enemy colors. Requiring everyone who wants to be on-theme for the month to play Boros colors would be amusing (red-white is widely considered the worst color pair), and would be a great excuse to play Brion Stoutarm.
Three Color
I'd love an excuse to play Narset for a month. She tends to either blow up or get hated off the table based on past experiences playing against her - even if she's having mana issues or getting bad flops. Picking just shards or just wedges, or even just one set of 3 colors would make for some interesting choices.
Four Color
I'm not sure this would be much fun, as the options are limited and we currently don't allow Nephilim. If the 4/c decks hadn't just been released a year ago, it might be more intriguing, but I hope nobody goes for this as a theme.
Five Color
Here's where things get the most interesting. The range of 5/c commanders used to be fairly limited, but 2017 brought us a slew of new 5/c Dragons to play with. I would probably build a new version of Ramos, Dragon Engine.
There are many more interesting ways to approach picking a theme.
Tribes
While we won't do deck-checks, someone could certainly decide upon a tribe for their month's theme. That tribe would only apply to the commander, but it might be fun to have a month of Elves for the purpose of trolling our resident elf-hater. The only bad option would be a tribe with very few choices for legendary creatures, or with options that are expensive (our league doesn't allow proxies).
Artists
Picking an artist would be really interesting, as I have no real association of any specific artists with specific legendary creatures. As an example, the much beloved Rebecca Guay might seem like a good choice, but she's only done the art for 4 legendary cards - Asmira, Holy Avenger, Atayla, Samite Healer, Commander Eesha and Kaysa (shown). You're forgiven for not recognizing any of them - they're both old and underwhelming.
Keywords
Having a month's theme be commanders that have a specific keyword is a much more interesting way to approach this challenge. You could go with something basic like Flying or Trample, or you could dig deeper. Partners would be fun, but I've had a soft spot for the partner mechanic ever since it was released. More obscure keywords, like Enrage, Revolt and Hellbent, wouldn't give you viable options to pick from for a commander.
Sets & Blocks
Requiring that an on-theme commander be from a specific block or set of Magic cards would be a neat way to put a flexible, interesting limitation on players' choices for commanders. You could also just require that commander be from official precon releases, or from a specific year of Commander precon decks.
Converted Mana Cost
It would be weird to pick a specific CMC as your theme, but if you had a penchant for wanting to play high casting cost commanders, you do that. I could see a player declaring their theme to be "7-up". Any commander costing 7 or more mana would qualify. You could also go low. There are 10 legendary creatures with a CMC of 1, and I've always wondered what building a Norin the Wary deck would be like.
Of course, I am hoping we get a few really creative choices for commander themes for 2018.
Original Frames
I think a "vintage" month where the commander theme is original frame commanders would be really fun. I now have a fairly underwhelming Karona, False God pillowfort deck that I'd try out for a month. I think it'd be neat to see what old legendaries players would try building around if we had a month where you got a bonus for playing old legendaries as your commander.
Hunks & Babes
Maybe none of our top Gen Point players would lower themselves to this level, but having a month of hunks or babes, or both, as commanders might be amusing. You could go a step further and specify "Ladies Facing Left" if you wanted. As long as you can look at the commander and know whether or not the card qualifies is what matters. "Smiles" might be fun, though I have no idea how many commanders have art in which they're smiling.
Alters
I'm not talking about proxies here - I'm talking about cards that have been altered with custom art. This might be the most fun option imaginable, but we'd want to have it towards the end of the year so players could prepare. I think I'd probably have a Narset alter made. She's my best and favorite deck even if I rarely play her. Of course, not everyone can afford to have a nice alter made, but if someone just picked up a second copy of their commander and used sharpie to put a top hat on it, that'd qualify too. It'd be sad, but also slightly hilarious.
High Roller, Hobo
I'd be hesitant to suggest the former as an option, but someone could specify a price range for commanders for their month. Commanders that cost $1 and under might be fun, though if a card's price shifted mid-month we'd have to figure out whether or not to allow the commander to still be played. Still, I think this might make for some interesting decks. I probably have a few that would qualify, at least for the hobo ($1 and under) option. If "hobo" is offensive for some reason, know that I'd use the term "pauper" but that already has a definition in MTG. Maybe "poorhouse"? I don't know, but I hope you get the idea.
Final Thoughts
In a day of play in our EDH League you can earn as many as 6 points through casting your commander 3 times each round. Adding a monthly theme for 10 of our months and having that theme let you earn another 6 points on the day should be enough to make it relevant. You'll gain enough points to be in a better position, and a few months will surely be won by "on-theme" decks but a strong deck that isn't getting extra points each time their commander is cast should still have a chance at winning the month. Animar, Prossh, Maelstrom Wanderer, and all the other genuinely powerful legendaries will still win lots of games and may win a month or two if those players show up regularly, even if they aren't on theme.
I hope this week of "inside baseball" on how I'm planning to change up our league point system wasn't too boring. Part of writing a blog is finding things to write about, and while I always have something EDH-related on my mind, it isn't always a new deck or combo. Sometimes it's the slightly less interesting process of looking at our system and figuring out how to make it better.
Other News
In other news I have now played my Karona deck a few times. It's not great, but it does seem to get a decent pillowfort set up. The problem is that I'm loathe to cast Karona if I don't have a way to reliably keep her from hitting me, I'm hesitant to cast her. That means I'm essentially playing with a 9 cmc commander. I'm definitely going to keep tweaking the deck. It's 5/c so I should be able to add some other wincons to it, even if they aren't great. This might be a place to play Azor's Elocutors or maybe to build a Maze's End wincon, or both. It's never going to be a "good" deck but so far I'm intrigued and amused and I'm going to keep it together.
My league play still sees me at the top of our rankings for October, even though I didn't win any games yesterday. The second place player couldn't make it, and the third place player did narrow the gap but going into next week I'm still over 10 points up on my nearest competitor so I have a very good shot at winning my second month in a row. Apparently Marath Enraged is still Marath and a properly build Marath deck can really perform.
Yesterday did see our first bad loser walkout of 2017 in our league. It happens, though it is unfortunate. That player won't be welcomed back, though I expect they also won't want to join us again. There was a situation at a table where the sore loser realized he could have stopped something a few turns earlier in the game but nobody had caught the problem at the time and nobody bothered to bring over anyone (a judge, league organizer or store manager) to help adjudicate a fair resolution. Instead this guy just left without even filling out his sheet.
The day wasn't all bad - I wasn't even at that table. In round 2 I got to play in one of the best EDH games I've seen in a long time. We went at it for 2 hours with 4 strong players all playing strong decks. I was able to eliminate the Atraxa player with a little help from the Marchesa player (who I thanked post-game with extra Gen Points). We each had moments where we were blowing up, about to blow up, or teetering on the edge of comboing off. In the end, the Selvala player blew up with maybe 10 minutes left in our 2 hour round. He's a great player with a great deck but there wouldn't have been any shame in losing the game to any of them. Handshakes and fist-bumps abounded and there was very little saltiness during the game. Even though I didn't win, it was a long, contentious, fascinating and fun game and I was lucky to have had the chance to play in it.