The End of EDH
Before it was called Commander, our favourite hundred-card format was known as Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH), so named for the iconic legendary Dragons from the very first multicoloured set in Magic's history. It was renamed in 2011 when Wizards of the Coast printed the very first set of preconstructed decks for the format.
With the announcement of the format being handed over to Wizards to manage, I think it's fair to say that the EDH era is finally at an end. Commander will continue on, but on a deeper level, I don't think it will ever be EDH again, at least not to me or many others.
I first encountered EDH in 2009 when I became a judge. It was known as the judges' format back then, being the format of choice to unwind with on breaks or after events. I built my first deck (Uril, the Miststalker) shortly thereafter and haven't looked back.
Ten years later, in 2019, I had the honour of being part of the inaugural six members of the Commander Advisory Group and remained a member of said group until its dissolution along with the Rules Committee on September 30th, 2024.
In this article, I hope to share my thoughts on everything that's gone on in the past month from an "insider's" point of view and offer my thoughts on both recent events and the shape of Commander as a whole.
Before any of that, though, I need to make it clear that the handover to Wizards came about solely due to extreme harassment and threats faced by members of the RC and CAG in the wake of last month's quarterly announcement with its unprecedented ban list update.
Were it not for the inability of some so-called members of the Commander community to behave like rational human beings, the RC would still be in charge of the format. Debate, disagreement, even properly expressed anger in light of such an announcement was expected and even encouraged, but threatening or harassing anyone over a hobby is absolutely unacceptable in any way, shape, or form.
The Beginning of the CAG
So let's rewind to January of 2019. The CAG was newly formed and we started working hand-in-hand with the Rules Committee.
There was a lot of a butting of heads and healthy debates around the shape of the format leading to some early changes, such as the banning of Iona, Shield of Emeria and Paradox Engine and the unbanning of Painter's Servant, along with a new philosophy document and what felt like a fulfillment of the promise and vision that Sheldon presented in his reasons for creating the CAG.
Of course, none of us knew what was just a year away with the COVID-19 pandemic about to change the world utterly.
The pandemic played a key role in the story here as Magic play first dried up in local game stores and at larger tournaments before the era of webcam Commander and SpellTable took hold, giving Commander a real leg up over other formats.
The pandemic also brought a flood of new players to the game as folks with free time and nowhere to go bought into hobbies like Magic. The RC and CAG continued our work, adding new members to the CAG, but the slowdown in in-person play led to a more "wait and see" approach on troubling new cards.
As the CAG swelled in numbers, the relationship between the two bodies shifted, going from full quarterly meetings where spirited debates could be had over any number of cards, rules, and other format topics, to a more sedate rolling conversation that lacked some of the urgency of the early days.
I will say now that I don't think the CAG should have ever grown as large as it did, but instead should have rotated to keep these more direct meetings with the RC possible. It's much easier to manage, let alone arrange, a meeting of ten people than one of eighteen.
A Changing Relationship
As the pandemic waned and in-store play returned, the RC waited to see how cards that had been bugbears of the online discourse would actually play out in person, such as Tergrid. While some good conversations were still happening, leading to action on Hullbreacher and eventually Golos, it was clear to me that something had changed.
Perhaps it was just that the CAG was no longer new and the RC had gotten inured to its presence, but it no longer felt like there was much desire from the RC to shake things up. I personally felt a bit stung when a project dealing with the possibility of reinstating a "banned as commander" list felt like it was looked at and then set aside with no change.
This was also around when I got a bit burnt out on Magic and decided to take a step back. Other factors in my life, such as the end of the Wizards-run Magic judge program, had my stress level running high. To make a long story short, I stopped caring as much as I had about the format. I had to for my own mental health. It perhaps would have been the right call for me to step back from the CAG at this point, at least temporarily.
My passion was, in part, renewed when the RC expanded to add Jim and Olivia in 2022, but any shake-up I had hoped for didn't materialize. Instead, it felt more like two of the most vibrant voices on the CAG had just been muffled by their absorption into the more secretive RC.
The status quo carried on after that point with some minor changes to documentation, but Sheldon's worsening health loomed over all of us like a dark cloud, even if some of us weren't as aware of it. His death in September of 2023 broke many of us on a deep level, and I believe that it's the aftermath of this event that led us to where we are today.
The Final Ban Announcement
The lead-up to the RC's final ban announcement didn't feel particularly special. The chatter was focused mostly on cards like Nadu and Dockside Extortionist and some newer topics, like a growing contingent of the CAG being in favor of banning Rhystic Study.
There were no conversations around Jeweled Lotus or Mana Crypt, though talk about the speed of the format and fast mana was always in the zeitgeist, even if it didn't dominate the conversation.
About a week before the announcement, we were told by the RC that the announcement would be "substantial." This is when I first wondered why we weren't being kept more in the loop and felt as though there was a lack of trust between the RC and at least some of the CAG members.
After there was pushback from myself and others over not keeping the advisory group in the loop, we were eventually given access about 36 hours prior to the post going up, though we were also told at that time that the decisions made weren't up for debate.
That, at least, was normal. The CAG advises and the RC decides... except that we didn't directly advise on the meat of this decision, or at least not specifically in regards to banning Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus at the same time.
While it's likely not the decision I would have opted for, especially since there was already the pre-game discussion project taking shape behind the scenes, I stood behind the RC's decision as at least reasonable for the good of the format. I prepared myself to defend and explain it, as best I could, though I expected there to be backlash like there always is when beloved cards get banned.
The Vitriol
None of us were expecting the excessive level of vitriol that came flowing our way once the post went live. It was disgusting and shameful, and there are several people in the Magic community that I lost all respect for because of their behaviour in the aftermath.
I was lucky in that I avoided receiving any direct threats or even serious abuse, but that doesn't make the actions of the worst people out there any better. I appreciate everyone in the community that supported and stood up for the RC and CAG, and even those who greeted the announcement with happiness or even rational disagreement.
In any case, it was clear within a day of the announcement going live that this was no normal reaction. I was mostly focused on supporting my friends and colleagues and trying to have good faith conversations with those willing to listen.
Things didn't get better, though.
An attempt at clarification from the RC just riled folks up again and brought the issues of trust between the bodies of the RC and the CAG into the public eye.
By the end of the week, we were all informed one on one about the following Monday's announcement re: handing the format over to Wizards. As unfortunate as that result is for keeping the format community-driven and community-focused, it's clearly the only viable choice given the worst responses to the ban announcement.
I'm still deeply saddened and a bit numb from everything that's gone on since that last ban announcement, but I feel as though my unique perspective deserves to be shared. I feel as though the RC had several fundamental failings over the past few years, and while I still greatly respect everyone who served on that body, I'm not going to pretend it was ever perfect. Anyway, let's get on with what I see as the three biggest failings that contributed to all the drama of the past month:
Communication & Public Relations
This is, I believe, the primary failing of the RC. Everything else aside, a better focus on communication and managing public relations could have at least mitigated some of the other issues. I brought up issues with how things were worded and presented many times over my years on the CAG, and only ever rarely was anything deemed worth fixing.
I feel as though the RC just didn't want to adapt the way they handled announcements and presenting information as times and the format changed, and that led to a lot of poor choices.
Up until the end, most announcements still had a very DIY feel to them. While that may have worked in the era of forums and being a weird judges' format, it wasn't what the most popular and supported format needed in the age of social media.
Philosophy & Purpose
With poor communication came a muddying of what the Rules Committee's purpose and philosophy for the format was. While the RC were the keepers of the whole of the Commander, their focus was always aimed at the more relaxed end of things. They saw the format a certain way and managed the format to those ends.
They never wanted to be impartial or hands-off, but the last few years of perceived inactivity did a lot to undermine the rapidly growing player base's understanding of those facts.
How many people didn't even know that the Rules Committee was independent of Wizards when the bans were announced? It was a lot, judging by what I saw in comment sections and on social media.
Lack of Trust in a Post-Sheldon Rules Committee
As much as Sheldon was only one member of the RC, he was very much their spokesman and the face of the format to a vast majority of players. Following his death last year, I believe that the RC needed to make a more concerted effort to show players how Commander and the RC would move on in a new era without the man who cast such a long shadow.
By just keeping up the status quo, I feel as though the RC just became more anonymous and more background in a lot of folks' minds.
No, no one could ever replace Sheldon, but there should have been efforts to at least partially fill the hole that his passing left in the public eye. It would have, perhaps, been an impossible task, but not even trying was clearly the wrong response.
I don't want my criticism to come across as beating a dead horse or spitting on the grave of the Rules Committee or anything like that, but I also want to look forward to the future, especially now that I can talk about my new position on the Commander Format Panel.
I'm very excited to be able to continue helping to guide the format I love, and I have a very good feeling about where things are headed, especially with so many exciting new voices on the panel.
No, the Commander format won't ever be the same as it was when it was overseen by a fully independent Rules Committee. It can't be. The format, the game, and even the world has changed too much to allow for that. That doesn't mean that there's nothing to look forward to in this new era, however. The future is full of potential, and I look forward to facing it 100 cards at a time.
EDH is dead, long live Commander.
