Commanderruminations

Starting up an EDH League at your local game store is not a small undertaking if you want it to succeed. You will have the job of deciding how it is run, printing out scoresheets every week, tracking everyone's point total, posting announcements for when the league is (and isn't) going to be playing, and planning your end of year celebration. It's a lot more work than just showing up at the game store and playing with your friends, but I think it is well worth the effort. You'll help build a community of players, you'll learn about leadership and organization, and if nothing else, you'll know there is a time every week when you can be sure to get some games in when you show up at your LGS.

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How much should we charge?

Commander is a "social format" but it caters to both casual and competitive players and your decision on whether or not to charge money to play in your league will have a huge impact on the kinds of games you see in your league. If you want to have prizes you're going to have to charge your players something. When you add prizes, you introduce that most basic of human weaknesses - greed. Players will play their most degenerate decks and you will develop an atmosphere that is toxic to newer and more casual players, who will feel like they are just showing up to hand their money to the top players every week. If the gap between top tier and janky casual decks was not so wide, this might not be as much of a problem but in reality it's the difference between bazookas and slingshots. Most casual players don't mind the occasional blowout loss but they won't become regulars if everyone else is playing cEDH decks to try to win money every week.

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It should come as no surprise that I am going to urge you to keep your league free to play. My answer is "nothing". Keep it free!

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Not only is it good for getting casual players involved and growing the community - it is also an important part of keeping saltiness at bay. Players will always get salty, but if there is money in the mix, the salt will flow much more easily. Furthermore, growing your league will be easier if it is free, as many players are young and don't have cash to throw around over and above building their decks and playing in other more competitive (and expensive) formats.

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Some game stores will resist the idea of having a free league in their store. They want a cut of the action. Given that they are a business, it's understandable that money will enter into their calculations. I would argue that building up a community of players is actually a huge benefit to the store. Members of your league will be more inclined to think of the LGS as their "home store" and will be more likely to spend money there. You may have to find an open spot in their store's schedule and you may find yourself skipping weeks every now and then if they have something more "important", like a PPTQ or sealed event planned.  If you are unable to convince the store owner, you may have no choice but to charge something, but I would still urge you to keep it as low as possible and avoid having cash prizes for winning.

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How do we recognize winners?

In any game where there are winners and losers, you want to honor your best players. Especially if you aren't providing a cash prize for players to win, it will give your players something to try to achieve.

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At NexGen Comics, we have a big metal goblet that we call the "Commander Cup". Clipped onto the edge of it is a nametag displaying the name of the previous month's winner for all to see. That may not sound like much, but the league is free so our resources are somewhat limited. The cup is also used to draw colored glass beads for splitting players into pods, so the winner's name is definitely "in your face" all month long. At the end of the year we are also having a potluck and will be giving out awards for the year's top players, both by total points and average points per week.

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However you choose to run your league, you should definitely honor your players for their achievements. Having superlative awards such as "Most Improved Player" or even "Most Hilarious Boardstate" can be fun as well, provided you have a fair way to select these winners or just acknowledge that they are subjective and are being awarded for fun.

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How do we attract players?

You will need to post your league's day and time on your LGS's schedule, both online and in the store. You will also want to rely on word of mouth. If you try to attract players with prizes, you'll risk getting the kind of player who is really just looking to farm money off of casuals, and that's a risky way to try to grow your player base. Do it if that's the kind of league you want, but catering to spikes may limit your growth in the long run, as there will always be more casual players than competitive players in this format.

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How can we manage salt?

Any competitive game will see its share of sore losers and angry players. There are many ways to try to manage this but in the long run there is only so much you can do.

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When a player has a bad game, it can be really easy to not take it in stride. Nobody likes to lose, and even if there was no one to blame, it can be hard to lose gracefully if your only game that day was a trainwreck. For that reason, our league always plays two rounds of EDH. The reason is simple - when your first round is terrible, it is easier to deal with if you know you have another chance to get in a decent game.

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Our league's schedule is Saturdays from 2pm to 7pm. That means that round 2 can start in the late afternoon. Young people don't always do stuff like have a decent lunch, get a good nights' sleep, and manage their person lives so that they aren't carrying around tons of stress, so I decided I wanted to try to do something to help minimize the chance a player having a bad day will really lose their temper.

 

I can't make players get to bed early.

 

I certainly can't do much about the sources of stress in their lives.

 

I can however do one simple thing.

 

Bake cookies.

 

Nearly every Saturday morning I bake.

 

I make three dozen homemade chocolate chip cookies.

 

Sometimes I make butterscotch chip & chocolate chip cookies, which are better.

 

I bring them to the store for everyone to share. If a player skipped lunch that day, or are just having a hard time in their games, there's always a cookie for them to help keep the salt down.

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Be the player you'd like to have at your table

Most people interested in running an EDH league are also players who love the game and will want to participate. If this is the case, you need to be acutely aware that as the organizer, you are the face of the league. You are the guy or gal who hands out scoresheets, checks them over for issues when they are returned, and announces the winner each month and the top point getters at the end of the year. As such, your good or bad behavior is going to have a greater impact on players' enjoyment of and interest in the league than any other player.

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One of the most important things to the success of your league, believe it or not, will be your own ability to be the kind of player other players want to play with.

 

As the organizer, you will always - or almost always - be there when the league gets together and plays. You are absolutely allowed to play your best decks and get your fair share of wins. However, I would urge you to exercise restraint and play a range of decks, from fun / janky / midrange to your very best decks. Be a good winner, acting with sympathy and understanding for the frustrations of the players you have defeated. Also be a good loser, acknowledging good play, finding humor in your worst moments and remembering that there's always another game and everyone - even good players - lose often in a multiplayer format like EDH.

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Lastly, everybody has bad moments. The salt flows through nearly every EDH player at some point in time and you are no exception. When you have a bad day, get snippy at the end of a game, or just lose your cool in a way you regret - apologize. Just take a moment the next time you see the person whose play (or personality) got under your skin and let them know you're sorry you said whatever you said or acted in whatever way you acted. It's easy, it costs nothing, and if you genuinely mean it, you will elevate people's opinion of you, not lower it. Don't apologize if it isn't appropriate to do so, but don't be afraid to if you were actually out of line.

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