It is a very common thing to read online or to hear at a LGS that when someone shows an interest in trying out MtG that they should try out Commander/EDH, I think this is a terrible idea in practice and decided I wanted to write about why.

Blinded by preference – Commander is a lot of peoples favorite format and for a good reason. It is the only format outside of true 60 card kitchen table casual where you can effectively just do whatever you want. Minus a relatively small ban list, you can play any card and play almost any style of deck or strategy. The immense card pool allows for people to do things that they just can’t do in any other format and truly make a deck their own. There is a reason a lot of people complain about net-decking when they bring a brew to FNM or similar and just get rolled. They don’t get the chance to truly express themselves in the game due to more competitive formats being exactly that, more competitive.

It is also the only format that encourages the social aspect of MtG in the game itself, politics are an innate part of multiplayer games and non-cEDH Commander puts them front and center. Alliances, bargaining, and betrayal are such a big part of the game just because it is a multiplayer format. It is also a lot easier to just play for fun without even trying to win than it is in something like Standard FNM because there is a decent chance you will still get to do something cool your deck is meant to do even if you lose. Commander also has the added bonus of it not feeling as bad when you lose because you aren’t losing alone, there are 2 other people who lost with you which does take a lot of the sting out of things on a psychological level that you just don’t get in 1v1 formats.

All of these are reasons why so many people enjoy Commander, and for a lot of people it is the only format that they play, but these very reasons are why it is also bad for teaching a new player or trying to use it to attract a new player base.

Information overload – There is just too much going on in a commander game. A commander deck can be expected to have anywhere from 60-100 unique cards in it depending on how many colors/basics a player chooses to run. While this is obviously counting the mana base the sheer number of lands/mana rocks that have been printed means that you can’t just ignore the mana sources someone plays because you never know when there might be an onboard trick or something that can mess with a play someone was trying to make. Multiply this by a full pod and you are expecting a new player to keep track of potentially a hundred of game pieces with thousands of potential interactions. For a seasoned player this isn’t a big deal, we have learned the heuristics to parse what is important or not important through experience. Expecting a new player to just be able to handle all of this shows a lack of understanding or remembering what it means to be new to the game. A result of this excess of information is it will almost always lead to the new player being very passive at the table. They don’t know what to do or when they should do it, and all it takes is one attempt to make a play or interact getting blown out by something to make them become even more unwilling to do things for risk of feeling like they are making a mistake. There is a very good reason why the new player decks WotC used to give to stores were mono colored with only 30 cards and duplicates of a lot of them. It minimizes the number of game pieces they need to learn and find out how they interact with each other. This allows a new player to learn the basics of the game very easily, and after they are done learning they would get to keep both new player decks to then shuffle together and have a proper 60 card deck to play against other decks like it.

People are complex – It is very easy to play games with your friends. You know them, you know how they think, they are predictable. It’s possible that a friend group could teach another friend how to play commander with no issues because they all know each other. This does not apply to someone who is trying to learn the game on their own, or who is venturing outside of their circle to try and see what games with other people are like. You hear stories from every LGS and player about the time they sat down to a Commander game and there was someone who was new and playing a precon or the equivalent and someone else at the table decided to pull out a prison deck, or a fast combo deck and make the experience miserable for everyone but themselves. I have long pushed against prison decks in Commander for that very reason, you are either preventing someone from playing or punishing them for playing which is just a terrible experience. For a more enfranchised player they will either swap to a different deck that has a better chance, or even choose to just stop playing games with that person. A new player is much more likely to just not come back again.

Nowhere to go – It is very difficult for someone to go from playing exclusively commander to almost any other format. For someone who starts their MtG journey playing a format like Standard they will end up with a lot of cards that they aren’t necessarily using in a deck. Extra cards beyond the play set, cards that don’t fit in their deck, cards in other colors. It is very easy for someone to build a Commander deck with even a small collection. It might not be the most powerful, but it will still be a deck. You cannot do this the other way around. Converting a commander deck to a deck in any 60 card format just doesn’t work due to needing 1-4 of any card as opposed to only 1. This starts the new player at a disadvantage from the get go. What if they don’t really like commander? What if they want to try a new format to see what the experience is like? The pipeline is practically one directional and it is very hard to change once you start down that path specifically.

No good answers – Now we come to the real question, what is a better way to teach someone? Unfortunately there isn’t any that are perfect. Commander isn’t good because of all the reasons I have listed. Standard isn’t that great because it is potentially a big investment into something the person doesn’t even know they will enjoy. Anyone who recommends a 60 card format older than standard is clearly just biased for whatever format they like the most because none of them are a good new player experience. I have heard a few times that a prerelease is a good new player experience but I disagree heavily. While it is fine for a more casual player who has played for a little while asking a new player to build a deck from effectively scratch will almost always go poorly. Numerous times I have heard someone comment that they are new to magic or it is their first prerelease and they just don’t know how to build a functioning deck. Notice I did not say good, I said functioning. No one wants their new player experience to be filled with mana problems which are all to common when someone builds a limited deck for the first time. Draft is even worse then the other options because now you are forcing them to make decisions about every card in a limited amount of time. Even with drafts being untimed they will still feel a lot of pressure when the packs start pilling up next to them when they are trying to make decisions.

My recommendation – Fortunately WotC has actually put out one really good product to help both game stores and friends try to teach someone how to play MtG, Jumpstart. So much of what you hear about Jumpstart online is how bad the product is for value. How the packs aren’t worth opening because you never get cards worth anything unlike the first Jumpstart which had the potential for really cool or expensive cards, it even added a legacy playable card in Muxus. But these people are missing the point of the Jumpstart sets. They aren’t meant to be opened for value they are meant to give you the experience of playing a game of limited without needing to do a full sealed pool or getting enough people for a draft, and as a result they are great for new players. You get 2 random packs that you combine to make a 40 card deck, the cards are mostly simple minus the potential for 1 cool splashy rare which actively adds to the new player experience because who doesn’t love seeing their new rare help them win the game? The main downside to the original Jumpstart set was it was missing a way to convert the cards into a true format due to the cards not all being legal in standard but the new Jumpstart sets fixed this by being built around specific sets. They are also coming out with Foundations Jumpstart packs which will be perfect for a new player experience. If I was a store owner or manager I would make sure that I always have packs of those available as a way to get new players into the game to replace the new player decks. This will also assumedly give the new players exclusively cards that they can play in Standard which is a good way to potentially get them to play in something like FNM. (Edit: Foundations Jumpstart will contain cards that are not legal in Standard, I consider this to be a negative and potentially confusing to a new player) Obviously this isn’t perfect, there is still a chance of them bringing a pile of cards that just isn’t strong enough to really win, but that is where an actual positive community comes in to try and give them pointers, or borrow them a deck until they can finish or build their own.

Conclusion – I greatly enjoy Magic. It is my favorite card game. I don’t know if there is a single format I don’t like playing, there are just people I don’t like playing with. I care a lot about trying to grow the community and get new players because I understand that people don’t play Magic forever. They move away, they have kids, they just fall out of love with the game. That is why the new player experience is so important to me and getting someone into the game “the correct way” is so important to me. What doesn’t grow dies, and you can’t grow without new players. I have nothing against Commander, I actively enjoy the format with friends or like minded people. But there are too many people who see Commander as the only way to play the game and it is just not a good viewpoint to have and is potentially costing the game more players when it is pushed on new people instead of something that is just easier to handle when you are new. I think everyone who plays Magic should try Commander once they are no longer considered a new player, but I don’t think it should be the first thing a new player tries.

– John