Even though it is not one of Wizards of the Coasts sanctioned competitive formats, Commander has become one of the most popular ways to playMagic: The Gathering. WhileMagic: The Gatheringis known as a highly technical and competitive game, Commander has enjoyed popularity as a more casual format thanks to its multiplayer nature and comparatively affordable buy-in. But competitive Commander, or Elder Dragon Highlander, as the format was originally called, is on the rise. In the competitive scene, players “pilot” multi-thousand dollar decks for a chance at even bigger purses, hoping to attain winning combos in a matter of three to five turns while preventing their three opponents from doing the same.
Like any form of high stakes gaming, competitive EDH has enormous potential for drama, exacerbated byEDH’s history of friction between casual and hardcoreMTGplayers, and the format’s complex relationship with Wizards of the Coast. The format was not originally developed by Wizards, and as a result, most competitive Commander tournaments are organized and hosted by third parties. Game Rant spoke with Jacob “Bad Dog” Lerner, a pilot and “brewer” (deck-builder and theory crafter) in Southern California’s Commander scene, about a recent experience at a professionally hosted tournament as both a bellwether and cautionary tale of bias and gatekeeping in the competitive community.
RELATED:Post Malone Says He Spent $800,000 on a Magic: The Gathering Card
The Frank and Son Tournament
Monarch Media, which describes itself on Twitter as “a non-profitMTGtournament organization specializing in cEDH content,” organized a tournament over September 3 and 4 at the Frank and Son Collectible Show in City of Industry, CA. The tournament was presented in partnership with Cash Cards Unlimited, a game store founded by former NFL linebacker andCommander enthusiast, Cassius Marsh, and carried a $300 entry fee with a guaranteed prize pool of $30K. On the first day, Lerner was able to compete without incident, but on the second day, he was approached by event staff.
“Two judges escorted me outside the tournament venue. Even event security was confused about what was going on. But the judges took me to an alleyway where Joking confronted me. He told me: ‘I have reason to suspect you are Bad Dog.’ I say ‘I’m not,’ because I know he has no way to prove it. He tells me I will not be playing in rounds five and six. So we walk back in, and Joking goes into the back to ‘discuss the situation.’”
Lerner came to the event alone in an attempt to keep a low profile, but he had several friends present at the tournament who were concerned by the situation, and disputed his disqualification. “Somebody suggested that everyone pretend to be ‘Bad Dog.’ It was like a real life ‘I’m Spartacus!’ moment,” Lerner recalled. In the end, after Hammond spoke with Marsh, Lerner was issued a refund and asked to leave the event immediately. Even though he did not receive a clear justification for disqualification, Lerner complied.
Following the tournament, Hammond took toTwitterto address the matter, claiming that Lerner was banned from Monarch events with the public release of the aforementioned cancel document. He also claimed that Lerner threatened him by saying “your time is numbered,” when he was ejected from the tournament.
The Information Cartel
Lerner knows he is a controversial figure inMTG’s competitive EDH community, but he also believes his experience is a symptom of systemic problems rather than a personal grudge. Specifically, Lerner is concerned by the overlap between influencers who steer deck-building discussions online, forum moderators who control the conversation in discrete EDH communities, tournament organizers who host competitive events, and Wizards of the Coast’s sanctioned judges who adjudicate play:
“Competitive EDH is basically an information cartel. A powerful group of moderators from Boston—high-ranking figures in the competitive EDH community—essentially run the conversation. Many of them are influencers trying to secure clout. So they stick together, and have a massive amount of influence in terms of East Coast representation.”
RELATED:Magic: The Gathering’s Streets of New Capenna Set Deserves a Dungeons & Dragons Crossover
Due to its enormous library of cards andever-changing list ofMTGmechanics, professional-levelMTGtournaments, whether their format is officially sanctioned or not, must be officiated by judges who are approved (but not employed) by Wizards of the Coast. When the legality of a specific play becomes ambiguous, judges are called in to clarify matters. But even for experienced judges, Commander rulings can be surprisingly subjective. Lerner argues the discourse in these online forums lends itself to a groupthink that results in bias towards certain play styles and players.
Lerner’s claim is difficult to substantiate, but his concern is valid. There is a conflict of interest in influencers, tournament organizers, and judges forming an unspoken united front. If those same influencers reach a consensus with the players involved with adjudication and event organization, players who deviate from socially prescribed tactics and deck constructions could be regarded as problem children, opening the door to prejudice, if not outright bias in rulings. Andthe money to be made inMTGtournamentsis just the tip of the iceberg.
Commander’s effect onMagiccard prices, particularly lands and dual lands,hint at the format’s huge overall impact onMTG. For savvy investors, simply being able to influence the trends in the Commander market could be extremely lucrative. The Commander community is particularly vulnerable to this kind of gatekeeping by majority consensus, due to Wizard of the Coast’s hands-off approach to the format, but that may soon change.
The Third Wolf
Lerner believes official Wizards of the Coast-sanctioned Commander events are merely a matter of time. Lerner provides an analogy where Wizards of the Coast is a third wolf. By allowing Monarch, Eminence, andother Commander tournament organizersto work out the kinks in a competition format, it can reap all the benefits of research and development without assuming any risk.
“Wizards of the Coast is definitely communicating with tournament organizers like Monarch and Eminence. I suspect WOTC is trying to use them as either groundwork, or risk-free prototypes for their own tournaments. If there are three wolves competing for a mate, one wolf will wait for his competitors to weaken each other, and then kill the victor of the first fight.”
What that means for the future of Commander is ambiguous, however.If WOTC decides to leverage existing competitive EDH event organizers, the risk of meta-fixing and bias could continue in perpetuity, as the same conflicts of interests would exist. By creating its own competitive platform, WOTC could once again act as a definitive point of authority within the community. Even if third-party tournament organizers continue to operate their own ‘gray area’ tournaments, players like Lerner would be able to take their decks elsewhere to compete.
Unfortunately, the former outcome seems more likely than the latter, as Commander tournament organizers rely on a quality-of-life conceit that runs contrary to WOTC’s goal: proxies. As the name suggests, proxies are cards that stand-in for other cards; especially those that are prohibitively expensive. Current Commander event organizers adhere to a common proxy-list to permit a wider variety of decks in competition. However, WOTC cannot permit any kind of proxy list in officially sanctioned play without catastrophically devaluingthe highly lucrativeMTG. In that sense, using third parties to organize professional but unsanctioned tournaments is a brilliant workaround.
Despite this complicated nexus of problems, Lerner is hopeful about the future of the format. He sees the quest for social media clout—and the inevitable drama associated with that pursuit—as the primary enemy ofhealthy competitiveMTGplay. To that effect, he urges new players to dismiss content creators going on about deck and card tier lists, pointing out, “most of the people going on and on about tournaments have never won a tournament.” Instead, he suggests that players have fun, “find out what [they] are good at, and rock it.”
Magic: the Gatheringis available now.
MORE:Disney Launching Trading Card Game to Rival Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering
