On Sunday 6-28-26 I played in a 17 person RCQ at Treasure Chest Games in Cloquet. I went 2-3 playing Boros Land Destruction https://deckbox.org/sets/3893485

73/75 – I wasn’t the only one playing Boros LD at the event and the other player did make top 8 playing a different built utilizing Karn the Great Creator and tempo cards like reprieve but I do personally have confidence in my build in the meta that was at the event. The extra spot removal, the 4x Wrath of the Skies, even the 2/2 Flying First Strike body on the White Orchid Phantom were relevant to both closing out games and having the extra land destruction available. Outside of the 4 drops the deck is very very consistent with all the 4 ofs and the overlapping of effects. The biggest mistake was the two eldrazi titans in my sideboard. Just on evaluation I do not thing the deck can ever reasonably beat mill, and I expected to see some of that deck at the tournament. Both mill players that I play against regularly were at the event but neither played mill but I stand by my choice to have the titans since I think both were reasonably likely to play the deck. In hindsight knowing what they ended up playing I would of played 2 copies of Wear//Tear instead.

Preparation – My preparation for the tournament was admittedly minimal. I don’t have the extreme competitive drive that I used to nor do I know if I could of actually made it to either of the Regional Championship options that this would of qualified me for but obviously that isn’t going to prevent me from trying to play to the best of my ability at the event itself. I only played 6 total matches with the deck before hand going undefeated but still dropping games. I feel like I learned a decent bit in those games about how the deck should be played and what to focus on but still would of been better to get more reps in I am sure. Most of my time related to getting ready for the tournament was spent trying to help two other people I was borrowing decks to who had no real experience in Modern try to get as prepared as possible for what was effectively jumping into the deep end for their first experience. I borrowed Jonas a controlling variation on Eldrazi Tron that they were able to at least play at one FNM to get a few games in, and I borrowed Claire Ruby Storm which they were unfortunately unable to get any play experience with but they did a lot of solo practice and we talked theory a lot which I enjoyed a lot personally.

The Tournament – The tournament had 17 players as mentioned. I don’t know the full deck breakdown and I can’t find it posted anywhere as of yet but from memory I think there were 4 tron decks, 2 Boros Energy, 2 Goryo’s, 2 Boros Land Destruction,2 Ruby Storm, 1 Death’s Shadow, 1 Merfolk, 1 Simic Ritual, 1 Vengevine, 1 Red Belcher. My hope was to dodge merfolk and Belcher and hope that my sideboard would carry me if I got paired against storm.

Round 1- My round 1 was against Logan on a green based Eldrazi tron hoping to take advantage of sowing mycospawn against the other tron decks. He unfortunately didn’t even know a deck like mine existed in the format and obviously my deck is designed to prey on decks like his. He seemed to take the ridiculousness of the matchup in stride. 2-0

Round 2 – Round 2 was against David also on a tron variant. He at least knew my deck existed but obviously even knowing what I was doing there isn’t really any recourse to be taken. He played out game 1 but conceded game 2 quickly once the writing was on the wall. 2-0

Round 3 – My first challenging matchup against Russ on Simic Ritual round 3. I won a very grindy game 1 after I was able to wrath of the skies and take out 3 birthing ritual which limited his engine greatly. I sideboarded poorly going into game 2 and 3. I trimmed on 1 wrath of the skies, 2 of each red land destruction spell, and a couple of spot removal spells and brought in 4 res tin peace and 3 vexing bauble. I think what I brought in was correct but I think I should of cut all of the red land destruction spells. Once I am trimming down on them like that it is very hard to truly lock him out, plus his main deck Endurance means he can keep putting his lands back into his deck to find again. If I had kept in all my removal I would of been able to just go hard control against him and possibly won game 2 or 3. I fittingly lost with an unstable (due to Harbinger of the Tides) in my hand where if it had been the wrath I boarded out maybe I could of stabilized. 1-2

Round 4 – I got to play against Jan on Merfolk round 4. Outside of maybe mono R belcher this was easily my worst matchup in the room in my opinion. To many islands to go with the normal game plan of running them out of resources, a lot of temp style counterspells to make my removal very hard to get what I want to with it. I also have zero sideboard cards to bring in. Was able to stall a bit game 1, grinded out a win game 2 off the back of White Orchid Phantom having first strike, and got fully ran over game 3. This was also the matchup where I learned how important Field of Ruin and Demolition Field are for my mana fixing. I was regularly having problems with my mana with no ability to used them to get basics and it cost me heavily in my ability to interact on curve with their creatures. Was a good match though and Jan is always great to talk to about stuff. Even though they make me feel old by bringing up the old days. 1-2

Round 5 – Round 5 I got paired against my own deck in Jonas on Tron. This match I got in my own head after going two winds into two loses. Game 1 my opening 7 had 2 lands only one of which could produce white, and a lot of white cards. I immediately thought “so this is how it’s going to be” and kept when I absolutely should of mulliganed. No reason to keep a sketchy hand when I know I have a good matchup. It was just my mental game slipping. Jonas had a very slow set up before they were able to get treats going. I missed my third land drop for 4 or 5 turns before starting to get the ball rolling. They said they were playing very defensively and trying to make as much mana as possible as opposed to playing out threats so I was able to make the game closer then I would of expected getting them down to 6 life before they stuck and Ugin. I checked the clock and noticed we only had 14 minutes left in the round so I conceded shortly after to try and win 2 games as fast as I could. Game 2 I made a very greedy play and was punished heavily. I had the ability to break up the assembly of tron on my turn 3 before they actually had it online but decided to leave up 3 mana to flash in an aven mindcensor with the idea being if they played an eldrazi I had a path to exile so I could stabilize easily and have an almost full lock and a clock. They played natural tron on turn 3 and cast an Ugin. Since I wasn’t able to find an Erode in time it essentially locked up the game. We went to time (inaccurately since we had a time extension due to a deck check) but I had no way of winning the game either way. Had we had more time I would of likely played less greedy and stuck to the normal game plan but with only 10ish minutes to try and win 2 games with a very slow deck I feel like I had to be greedy. Honestly I should of just conceded turn 4 game 1 and saved a lot of time. All of this being said I take nothing away from Jonas. They played how they felt they needed to to have a chance of winning after their experience in the matchup from the FNM two nights prior and I think they played well. 0-2

Aftermath – Two wins and three losses was obviously not enough to make top 8 but Jonas was able to make top 8 after winning out match which is sweet. Claire got 9th on breakers only losing out by .2% which for someone who had never played modern before let alone Ruby storm is awesome. As someone who focuses much less on my own wins now adays and cares much more about growing the community and teaching others to get better at the game seeing both people I was invested in doing so well was honestly better then making top 8. Claire likely would of made top 8 if someone else wasn’t conceded to so they could make it in instead which is unfortunate but is just part of tournament magic. I am glad I was able to help two other people expand their experiences in this game that I am so invested in.

Final Thoughts – I feel good about the tournament over all. I enjoyed my deck, the other deck I considered playing would of been prowess due to a lot of experience with that style of deck and having a decent win percentage with it but I think the reactions to me playing the land destruction deck have much better story equity then me just playing aggro. Could of made better choices but it’s good that I know I made those mistakes and can thus learn from them. Thanks to TCG for hosting the event. Congrats to Adam for winning, he is a great player and will definitely use the invite which is nice.

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