Is It Better To Have Powerful But Broken Sets Or Weak But Balanced? Our thoughts: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hLKdmcmbm7SyYY0.html

“Brexit Brian! There’s no eggs in England!!” Absolutely killed me

What do you want to see in the next Commander Legends set? "Better print quality." Truer words have never before been spoken. I laughed so hard at that response.

I literally ended Commander night last night by playing a game of pauper with a guy who brought some decks. 1 v 1 was the dessert! Is this the Professor or the Prophetic??

Sometimes the game feels great, where everyone has done what their deck wanted to do, to a point that you no longer care who wins, since you enjoyed that hour of game.

Even before watching, just the fact you get to sit in the same room together again is awesome and heartwarming.

For me commander reflects the exact state of Magic: Power creep, a million products, everything has a hundred lines of text, simic, mana cheating. Whether it's better or worse than it was 5 years ago, depends on if you like these things.

Our play group solves the casual-optimized issue by having ONE player bring ALL FOUR decks each week. The builder gives a briefing on the purpose of each deck. Everyone then picks a deck, with the builder picking last, or we just randomly assign them. The builder should win the majority of the games, right? But that's not what we've seen. Anyway, it works for us and we have fun with it. Thanks for your videos!

What I feel could help commander games: -Understanding other player's game experience *If you do a nasty turn and become threatening do not pretend that the rest of the table is on your level*

I feel like what attracted me to the format in the beginning was that I finally had a place to explore my timmy tendencies with no worries of having a super optimized deck combo off in 5 turns; then slowly but surely that started to change, made worse when WotC started designing cards specifically for the format and printing 5x as many legends per set. you can even track the powercreep by looking at something like the history of content like the command zone podcast; when they first started you'd see cards like darksteel ingot and coalition relic in their builds, now the only "playable" 3 cmc mana rock is skyclave relic

Five years ago, I was playing commander at my college game club on Fridays, and some of the optimization / power creep was already there. I've tracked the power of commander through the fall of a favorite and popular card, Sheoldred, and five years ago she was already seen as expensive and slow. I remember the more casual era of commander closer to seven or eight years ago.

The discussion about sitting down and playing commander “to win or to play” sums up perfectly the frustration I have with some commander players at my LGS. I think the increased power of card design in recent years has caused some players to forget about the table experience and concentrate too much on winning. Commander at its core is a social multiplayer format and I think it’s lost some of that core value. To me commander is about playing big dumb plays and having longer games where everyone gets the opportunity to play their deck and do something before an eventual winner is decided. I adopt Vince’s attitude where I don’t play certain cards like cyclonic rift because it’s boring, predictable and makes the table groan. I avoid very high levels of counterspells and interaction because I want to see what people do with their decks. My objective is always just to not come last rather than win. I still win my fair share of games but I’m much happier knowing everyone at the table is having fun than pushing for the win every game.

What's interesting to me is a lot of the conversations are reflective of the old complaints about netdecking. The idea is you start with a natural chaotic messy format that is fun because of the chaos. But as cards are designed for the format, precons are made, and content creaters instruct the chaos dries up and the format because stable and a bit boring. It doesn't mean the format is bad, for one that is exactly why the format is easy to access. In the end it just comes down to the players and the pods taken the initiative on their own to talk about the deck and have fun. Personally the best move my playgroup has is 1. whoever won has to swap decks And 2. Everyone is honest about the tempo they want to play. Two simple rules that keep things balanced and ensures the games keep feeling different and hopefully fun.

100/10 Perfectly timed and executed Brexit joke 🤣 (I love the idea that Vince would use planeswalking to cheat on household chores but goes all the way to Ixalan for eggs)

"You know what Dockside will be in? We've got 'triple masters' or 'double masters 2' and that's what they're saving it for, because they need those big expensive cards to justify their premiere sets." Prof hit that one on the nose!

The ideal mentality for EDH is to play at a level the pod is looking for, while playing to win such that it could be fun for the rest to lose to. When losing can be fun, or at least not miserable, then you have found the right combination.

I’ve been battling depression for the last year and a half (since the start of Covid), and it’s been rough on me. I’ve gotten less and less enjoyment out of Magic, but I still keep playing it because of the great memories I have with the game. I still enjoy your content, and I really appreciate the dedication and quality entertainment from you. Thank you

I have an $80 Verazol deck that is one of my favorite decks to play. I also have a $700 Locust God deck but I find myself playing it less and less just because it's harder to find others who won't feel pubstomped by it I could put a Dockside or other "must have" staples in every deck but at that point why? I don't want to sit down to mirror matches in Commander. I like that all my decks play so differently and have their own personality.

Here's my take: Commander has different levels of play (how you want to define those levels is not the point here), and I make decks that can be strong within the level they play in. Even though my (for example) Wyleth voltron deck can be VERY strong at the level it plays against, if I try to move it up a level, I get crushed, and if I try to move it down a level, I'm pub stomping. It depends on the meta of the group you're playing in and it depends on the level everyone wants to play at. I try to keep decks on hand of many different power levels but I also try to make my decks as strong as they can be within the power level they are set in. Sometimes they get enough improvements to move up a level or sometimes I realize they're not as strong as I thought and I shift them down a level.

"Commander only works when everyone sits down at the table and pretends that it works." Same thing with a society. Deep thoughts for a Tuesday.

That Planeswalker, bit 5 out of 5! I Loved it! Great job guys!👏👏👏👏

I look forward to this being uploaded to the podcast feed in August 2024

it feels like most of this conversation revolves around playing with trusted friends and not the ever more powerful world of commander decks out there. Talk to someone who hasnt played in 5 years and they will most likely have a massively different concept on what low mid and high power is across the format.

"Commander's your only option" I'm old enough to remember when people would be willing to play casual Magic or multiplayer Magic in ways that weren't Commander. I love Commander but it's tiring and frustrating that it's become The Only Format in so many circles.

Having played Commander since it’s inception, I’ve found that every year brings a reduction in diversity. When I build a deck, there are fewer choices. Sure, there are always new spells, but you select 8 removal, draw, etc., and then the archetypal staples, which dominate slots, and he seems the reduction in choice. I love it, but it has become somewhat mechanical

Also I remember that Commander used to be that you could find a random odd uncommon and you'd be able to stick it in your 99 and be happy about it. Also Staples of today were dirt cheap. Aetherflux reservoir, Smothering Tithe, Anointed Procession... I traded and bought these for a few € when they came out since they were not played in modern or standard.

The best night of magic I had in the last two years was with a friend that built/proxied 6 premodern decks. We just rolled decks over and over and had a great time. Cool old cards we know and love, interactive, great variance of strategies and playstyles, quick games and drawn out games. It was heaven. We talked for days after it about making slight changes in sideboards.

8:00 : every once in a while, my friends and I do my jumpstart cube, which is more fun personally than the drafting portion of casual limited with friends. Can't wait for JS2

When I think about it I'm blown away that we got 15 Commander decks this year. When a new deck comes out it's not as exciting.

"Made for commander" cards kinda take the fun out of the format imo. Commander for me is about finding a way to take advantage of having consistent access to a specific legendary creature. What kind of combos can I do with constant access to this affect? What kind of cards suddenly serve a different purpose when this effect is in the game? What fairly useless cards are now super broken because of a certain interaction with this creature? Stuff like that makes commander fun. Once you start including cards made for those kinds of interactions, it feels like it takes the fun out of it. Precon commanders nowadays are more like enchantments than creatures.

Good point about the power level of pre-cons going up. I've noticed this as well and it feels like we're seeing a de facto rotation happening.

I distinctly remember how back in the supposed Golden Age before the pre-cons, we were running into pretty similar problems. Yeah, it was just "throw together all the cool cards", but... Cradle is cool. Survival is cool. Swords of X and Y are cool... and thus those who had been playing for a decade (or had plenty of mana to spend) threw together their coolest cards and produced powerful decks. And the people who only had some Alara block draft chaff were mad that they couldn't compete. I don't think we ever really solved the problem. Other than that we stopped playing with the guy who insisted on de- and resleaving half his deck before every game to move all his power cards into whatever deck he was playing...

9:52 "ram gang mother" what a disturbing yet hilarious awkward set of words for Vince to stumble upon, he tried to get away from with "whatever"

The pregame talk 10yrs ago was, 'what's everyone playing?' 'alright everyone, kill Vivien's value deck first' Then whoever the Vivien is will think 'maybe i should play a deck people will actually let me play'

This was a very interesting video. Thank you both. And I love so much the intros and the timing of the very last cut for each and every single videos of DTR.

This is seriously, one-hundred-percent my favorite content and discussion as it pertains to MTG (or any gaming really)! I really love the discussion you two bring to the table- even the webcam ones. @20:59 I don't really see much salt anymore actually. I would argue that the salt was real BEFORE the pandemic, and at least at my medium-sized LGS the rule 0 convo is alive and well. Like really good spirited. People share deck lists on moxfield and stuff to make sure that there aren't any surprises. However, to what you folks are saying about people getting upset about the existence of some cards is very real. People discuss a card within the decks' strategy, and folks will literally stand up and say, "Your deck sounds great, I just don't care for that/these cards. I think I'll find another pod." Lots of people hopping up and shuffling pods and stuff based on decks being played and perceived power levels based on rule 0 conversation. Conversations are amicable, but it SUCKS that people essentially (in my mind) say to us through those words, "I want to win. I don't think I can win through that card. I don't want to even try and play through it or around it, let alone remove it." THAT is the problem with Commander in my mind (if there was to be one that could paint every corner of the format while being painted with such a broad brush).

22:10 There's bannings in every format because Hasbro is pushing Wizards to continuously break every format and turn eternal formats into rotating formats. It's compromising game health for corporate greed.

This podcast addresses one of the things that I really appreciate seeing when the Professor plays commander on Game Knights or other commander shows. I like Game Knights but it’s always the same cards week after week. It is like 70% of their deck is the same but they just change out a few pain lands or fetch lands and swap a dozen or so creatures to remain on theme. The Professor always has interesting creatures and mechanics from different times in Magic’s history. He shows us how more of our collection can be useful on these kinds of games if we pay close attention and read the card. He often shows us how to turn our jenk into jewels and gives me hope for casual play.

52:47 you have to keep in mind what the "new player" products used to be. new players weren't being pushed to get ur-dragon commander decks they were being marketed to get intro decks, planewalker decks, and the like. And we still get an annual commander decks! $20 commander decks dont in mean we don't get the more notable decks too. This year we had the cycle of very well received strixhaven themed commanders

I think I enjoyed commander the most when it was some random new format my friend heard about called EDH. We wanted to play multiplayer and it sounded fun so we threw together piles of "good stuff". As we played more we made deck improvements and spent more money on various cards and eventually had to deal with a lot of the issues that have become "The Rule Zero Conversation". Most of the problems we encountered were solved with setting price limits on decks or individual cards. It isn't perfect as prices change wildly at times. But there is an expectation-or at least a perception-that a $500 deck is going to crush a $100 deck most of the time. This did a lot to prevent egos from getting bruised. To me it will always be a kitchen table format where sometimes you get blown out on turn 5 and sometimes it will be a 2 hour slug fest, with be best games being somewhere in the middle. Players and play groups need to learn to be okay with Conceding. It's a very clear indication that you aren't interested in continuing the current game. Sometimes just switching decks or getting a better starts is all the table needs to have a great time. Also, let people free mulligan a few times. No one is sitting down to play Magic because their favorite way to play is: Draw-Discard-End.

It's a delight seeing you both in the same room again. What a wonderful reunion ＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

I find this a very interesting conversation from older pure magic players. I’m a yugioh player who has recently gotten into just commander. Commander really gives yugioh players that old school itch, and the optimization (staples) is few enough where it still feels like I’m creating a deck that is unique. Yugioh only has 40-60 cards, but 85% are non-archetype staples and every deck feels samey. Commander, as it is still feels unique enough. Perhaps my opinion will change down the road, but I find it very fun and refreshing.

One thing I’d like to mention, before I forget, cause I haven’t finished the section and you may have touched on it: I’ve only been playing magic since keledesh, and started playing commander in Dominaria, so I wasn’t as deep in when the commander decks were these hodge podges that had call backs or unique spins on even older sets and stuff like that, but this is my experience being on the board of execs for my college’s magic club: the commander decks bleeding into the set they come out with is absolutely amazing, both for getting new people into magic, and getting current drafters/standard players to play commander. The genius lies here: because the commander deck bleeds into the set, buying a precon can mean immediately upgrading it, because your date stamped card/lucky pull goes amazing in the deck. My go to example for this recent set is I bought the zombie deck from hunt, and pulled necroduality in my vow prerelease kit. While I do like the idea of commander decks being this deep dive into the lore and characters of old sets(one of my favorite past times is reading lore on MTG wiki) if we want to continue increasing and bringing in new players to commander, especially those that started in limited or 60 card magic, I feel having commander decks heavily tied to a recent set release is an amazing strategy. I’d just like them to also make sure they do print at least a commander deck to go with these more flavorful or lore filled supplemental sets, that what you can have the decks that are more reminiscent of how they once were, and continue on this honestly great plan

Fantastic discussion - you summed up what i've been trying to convey to people that I play with so that we're all on the same wavelength and enjoying ourselves in our own ways, i'll be sure to share it around! Thank you!

With all the Timmy and Johny players moving to commander as the main format, the Spikes had to move too - which means commander has become more competitive. I've played in casual commander tournaments with ridiculous ways to score points and the players that HAVE to win make the game miserable for everyone. I've also played in a cEDH tournament and it was a lot of fun as games were nicely balanced (comparatively).

There are so many Commander pre-cons now that our group draft the decks and play them against each other. They are relatively balanced so no drama regarding power levels. Best way to play Commander, IMO.

So glad to see you guys finally meeting in person! Hope you have/had a lot of fun playing. Personal thoughts on (my favourite) format: Rule 0 is really useful as long as it doesn't become a "you can't play that," kinda chat. I'd be happy with commander decks coming out more regularly for new players, (though I wish they were 20 quid not 40,) perhaps with a commander set like "Commander Legends" coming out once a year to introduce a bunch of weird new mythics to play around with. I've loved a lot of the new mythics they've made this year, from the bunny rabbit, to Slogurk, from Rograkh to Rionya, they've been super fun.

My ears are hearing a conversation between the Professor and Vince but my eyes are dream towards the bookshelf. Nice to see someone else appreciates Terry Brooks. You should do a bookshelf tour prof.

I work at an LGS , and the professor hit the nail on the head! The precons are only selling for the reprints, we have boxes of the Selesyna precons from Midnight hunt . Product fatigue makes things feel not as important, just my opinion

I feel that Commander was best placed as 'everyone's favourite second format' rather tha the premier format of MTG. Before it was fun and casual. Now it's the main thing to do, people have gotten competitive. Plus the made for commander stuff

I think at least part of what the Professor was struggling to convey near the end, about how impactful previous commanders were compared to recent ones, is that recent ones lack history. In recent sets, there are many legends that have a card but no visible impact on the world. They don't show up on other cards, they don't have a significant impact on the story, and this is the first time we're seeing them. I don't know who Eruth or Torens are (and I bet you have to look them up), and while their cards speak for them, that's all we get, vs the precons where we got things like Nahiri and Freyalise finally getting cards, callbacks to well loved planes, as well as things we just don't get any more. We don't get snake people like Kaseto or Phyrexians like Atraxa that often, meanwhile we already have this entire set (two in this case) dedicated to vampires and horror, we've had our fill, we don't need cherries on a cherry sundae with cherry whip cream. And because sets are crammed with so many legends, few are able to make an impact. When everyone's super, no one is and all that. While it's true supplementary sets pick up the slack, the point is before commander precons were special in that it gave us glimpses back into the worlds of yesteryear, bringing us things standard just couldn't provide, not just from power but from planes. Now precons are more like DLC for the main set, blurring in with it.

What a great video! Thank you gentlemen, you've made some good points and given us all things to think about. I can't wait to bring this up with my regular commander companions.

Prof describing the commander player asserting their happiness in the face of the absurdity of the format is what every absurdist philosopher used 500 pages to describe

The store that I play at has been doing a commander tournament instead of casual commander before standard and it's killed the consistent player base at the store. The house rules effectively banned infinite combos, so it isn't quite cedh but no one is encouraged to build unique decks, and you're frowned upon for not wanting to pay to play some casual commander before standard. It's a shame

I did buy the midnight hunt pre-con decks on sale. as a way to introduce myself as well as my wife to commander. Had so much fun I had to get the crimson vow.

I have to comment how good that opening skit was. The writing, timing, delivery; the screaming to planeswalk, "They evelolved" ... It's just so good. The Professor really has a gift with his skits, and Vince did his part perfectly.

"I'm sorry, there's only a finite amount of fun at a table, and I'm having more of it if I can!" Words to live by! lmao

Excellent point when you say "Despite more and more cards coming out, you see less and less and variety in EDH decks." I'd say you even see less haymakers and pinch hitters. Now it's just value engines, combo pieces and "staples"

9:00 The Commander’s Quarters still make incredible budget decks

Yall killed it with this episode. Defining commander as illusory is perfect! Great video

These arguments are solid and applicable, yet I feel it's more achieveable in a playgroup. You consistently meet with particular individuals and apply a social contract with one another. Playing with strangers is the wild west of interaction, will they or won't they play some degenerate stuff. Were just going to have rip the band aid off until we're hopefully successful in finding a playgroup, that sticks.

At the recent CFB Vegas 2021 event, me and my two friends walked into the Command zone. They asked us if we wanted a 4th player, who was a guy standing at the entrance looking for a game. We said "sure" and were seated at a table. During our Rule 0 conversation, we disclosed that we were playing casual decks which were level 6 or 7. He said "oh, cool" and wanted us to pick one of his two decks. We refused, and asked him to pick for himself. He went off on turn 4 and won the game, when the 3 of us had 3 lands and a single creature on the battlefield. We just said lets shuffle up and play again, but he said he didnt have time to, and left. Made for a great story, but I am not sure why every major event I go to, I experience something exactly like this. More and more, I am being invited to implement solution of simply skipping the Rule 0 conversation, but instead, to bust out my fully powered Atraxa Infect deck, and take the cunning player out when they demonstrate that they are obviously playing a cEDH deck, so we can actually play a decent game of commander. I can always play my deck down, but I cannot play my level 6 deck up to deal with stuff like this.

Cooperative in match goals would be an interesting metric for large scale commander events. Each pod becomes a team.

That intro was absolutely wonderful. For a bit there I thought the joke had gone on too long, but the last line brought it home. :)

God Vince nailed the ban thing. We really as a community need to adjust our discussion around bans and expectations.

I think the days of horse tribal being able to win in commander are long gone. Commander has moved closer to what modern and these other competitive formats are and a lot of it is determined by the commander. Too many commanders just do too much now that old school ones cant compete even in very casual settings.

I LOVE the discussion around the 21:00--about the success of the format kind of existing on a mutual belief that it works. I actually think that weird belief requirement is one of the coolest (or at least most intriguing) parts of the format

The bit at the beggining made me think about how awesome a silver bordered set about the content creators of Magic would be. Imagine our own universe as one of the planes, and the Prof and Vince as legendary creatures. So cool

"Better print quality." I don't know Professor, I think you might be asking for a bit much there.

I remember I used to buy every single commander product when it came in the early days. We used to get everyone together to play with the precons before we changed anything. Ever since they started making them more often, it lost its appeal because now it's so hard to keep up with all the cards coming out. Last one I bought was commander2017. I haven't had a desire to but a commander precon since.

I like that quote a lot, "you can't ban me into behaving". Hit the nail on the head~

Thank you for the perfectlycutscream at 0:57. Vince's expression is hilarious

Yes, finally a new episode!

Was waiting for it since vince did his video about Double feature

So glad to see my favorite dynamic duo back together again. Dies to Removal is the best and this episode was another success. Would absolutely love to see you guys go square off against Lynch and Joe on I Hate Your Deck! Cheers.

Love the way you tallked this through. I honestly see the commander precons as a good way to pick up a lot of small cards to fill up decks that I can get without amassing delivery and customs costs for singles and to get some reprints of cards that were first made before I started playing but I totally agree that they're just not special anymore.

With rule zero in mind. When i play with players i never have played before, I ask people play there average deck, not thier most powerful, not the weakest. Then after the first game we can all decide to go who should power up and who should go down.

Simple answer: It has the potential to be better, since we have way more relevant options. It's also way easier to build powerful decks. Is more powerful decks good? - Depends. But if you don't like it, just don't.

23:30 I think Vanguard’s choice restriction is a better system if you want to do something like that because if you don’t, you would have to assign an irresonable amount of points to either Leovold or Teferi’s Puzzle Box.

great chat..I remember playing lots of 5 player FFA tables way back on mtgo and we used to say lots of similar things about it as a broken yet favorite format... that format is a ghost town now.

Re: Precons. I like that They can expand on set themes more with set precons but they do feel less special. My chouce in a perfect but impossible world is that they drop the set precons back to 25 dollars then have a proper 4 or 5 deck premium, "set neutral" set of decks like in years past. But that is pie in the sky type thinking.

Commander used to be, mtg's magical Christmas land format, where you could play with the cards you had, throw in a bit of synergy, showcase your creativity and still compete. The mindset of the player base has changed, and its now about playing the most efficiently and is becoming a "competetive" format such as a multi-player modern or legacy. Obviously not everyone or all playgroups are like this, but as a whole it seems to be the direction the format is heading.

I love the AAAHHHHHH before he planeswalked lmao I always kind of thought that must hurt a little.

I was pretty evenly split between buying singles for what I needed and boosters to crack for fun as well as draft with, but I also was a weirdo that liked buying the supplemental intro decks and duel decks because I'd regularly find random jank from old sets in them that I'd be interested in building around or implementing in decks for my casual playgroup. Probably my favorite example of that was buying a couple of the Elspeth v. Kiora decks for the face cards but then I fell in love with Gustcloaks and built a pretty sweet monowhite aggro deck revolved around Gustcloaks and then another GW soldier token deck to ramp into back-to-back Captains of the Watch.

My big problem is too many legendaries and commander precons - a lot of interesting ones are outshined by the clearly pushed ones.

I think it really comes down to WotC forcing "rotation" into eternal formats. People were playing eternal, non-rotating formats and weren't buying into new sets like standard and draft players were so WotC forced a power creep into these formats so people would feel forced to keep buying new sets.

I really liked the chat. I always enjoy you both talking together. It seems you two are true friends. The Vince in the back was really quite.

Best Magic Podcast out there. The skits, the sarcasm, the insights and the punchlines at the end. Just love it

How about an expanded banlist that seeks to eliminate all of the auto includes in each color, as well as fast mana (including sol ring). It would encourage build diversity when those "auto include" card slots are freed up. I think it would create a healthy alternative "casual" commander. The other banlist could remain and all you would have to ask is "is this casual commander?"

As a new player I LOVE the precons, I love how accessible they are, how they are on an equal power level, that they tend to have different cards and the same staples over and over again and so I can build a collection of cards and I can build some decks on my own, and I really enjoy the low power lever they are at. Its so hard for me not to not buy the latest precons :)))

Love the content guys. Glad you guys are talking about it. The most important part before and during commander games will always be communication in my opinion.

I’ve only been playing magic for a year so it is interesting to listen to these conversations. It is really tough sometimes when you know there is one card that will make your deck go off, but it is crazy expensive. But I often want to test these cards when they are huge investments. I have a few decks with proxies to accomplish this and it seems most people are totally fine with proxies if it is one or two cards. So honestly some cards I might just keep as proxies and just make sure I discuss it as rule zero. I also understand the “I won’t optimize my deck despite having a card” I bought the Phyrexian secret lair and immediately found homes for Sheoldred, Elesh Norn, and Urabrask, but I can’t bring myself to put Vorinclex or Jin Gitaxias in any decks right now unless I build a deck meant to be cEDH. I think it comes down to knowing your play group and how it operates what is a do and what is a don’t. Then if it isn’t with your typical play group make sure your rule zero convo is as honest as possible.

Me: Simple and clean is the way that you’re making me feeel tonight. Prof: 23:55

My old play group from about 7 years ago had some simple rules for our Commander games: No infinite combos & no fetching for nonland cards. My current group plays Pauper EDH instead cause it's far cheaper and you don't have to deal with crazy powerful stuff outclassing the rest of the table as much.

I like the Nitpicking Nerds solution to Commander imbalances: They made a Commander Cube that doesn't contain any degenerate combos. That seems to work pretty well.

Such a great conversation ! And it made me reflect on why I buy the precons and how I build my decks. The biggest reason I play commander is to have fun, of course I’ll get salty at times but I also enjoy watching a unique deck go off. Standard is still fun but that’s what I use arena for. It’s too much to keep up with via paper Magic . Draft and modern will still have its place as well in my play groups .

Unpopular opinion: I've grown to like the product overload and the constant bombardment of new cards. As I start to show up at live commander nights again, I find myself going "ooo what's that card" more often. I've missed that "new player" experience and now realize how exhausted I was with knowing all the cards in the game. It just feels good to reach across the table, pick up an unknown card, and think "wow that's a cool card I didn't know about."

On the next episode of "Two old men shake their fists at the sky" we'll delve into the "good old days" when people played "real" magic!

The quick rounds of modern after EDH night with the boys has already begun in my playgroup. I see that wheel turning - sometimes you just need a quick 60 card aggro/combo palate cleanse.

I have a rule which works for me in terms of keeping my decks at a level where I have varied powerlevels. I have 16 commander decks currently, and apart from lands, and artifacts, i barely run more than one copy of any card across ALL of the decks. I have 1-2 competitive decks where anything goes, then beyond that across all the other decks, I only have 1 cyclonic rift, 1 tutor, 1 dockside extortionist etc etc. I found that not only does this help me from racing the decks to the top in terms of power level, but it keeps the creative juices going as well.