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By: AJ_Impy, AJ Richardson
May 05 2017 12:00pm
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Episode 420

Hosts: Paul and AJ

Episode Length: 1:04:04

 

News:

 

Editorial:
The reason the majority of Commander play is 1 on 1 is because of the systematic dismantling of multiplayer online. We've lost Emperor, 3HG, 2HG, anything with teams, and the ability to have more than four players. We used to have a room dedicated to multiplayer play, also gone. We used to have chat facilities which enabled and enhanced multiplayer play. The quality of them has gone through the floor over successive iterations.

 

Commander was pretty much the only thing we had left. At all. We cannot play without the rules (we lost the ability to set starting life totals and hand size for casual games several versions ago, even without being able to play commanders in the command zone) and now those rules are refocused on the single player version.

 

Multiplayer on Magic Online used to be massive. You had gigantic clans with instantly recognisable names. You could float a proposal for pentacle magic in the multiplayer chat available to everyone, and get five willing players seated in correct colour order. The social factors diverged because the ability to socialise was relentlessly weakened and depleted: The fact this is now being treated as the causa causans to de-multiplayer the last good multiplayer option open to us is extremely disheartening.

There is an extra irony in that they are using precisely the opposite reasoning they used to get rid of Two-Headed Giant: In that case, the online version did not match the offline version, so it was purged. Now, they are getting rid of the online version of Commander that matches the offline version in order to introduce a new format.

 

I respectfully request of Wizards that we be given access to both versions of Commander. It's a bit of a forlorn hope*, but I've been standing up for the casual side of Magic Online for nearly a decade and a half out of love for it, and I don't intend to stop now. Wizards is asking for feedback to be sent to magiconlinefeedback@wizards.com.

 

Whatcha been playin’:
Paul: Preparing to trash all my formerly legal Commander decks.

AJ: Day one Jackal tribal, singleton owing to an accident of scheduling.

 

Questions? Comments? Constructive Criticisms?

Contact us at: freedfromtherealmtgo@gmail.com

*(In the sense of a military assault by a cadre of volunteers risking their all to be the first into a heavily defended breach to lead the invasion.)

 

 

 

12 Comments

Breaking News: Commander by AJ_Impy at Fri, 05/05/2017 - 20:16
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Breaking News: Commander lives! http://wizardsmtgo.tumblr.com/post/160343614814/update-mtgo-commander

Wizards listened to the feedback from the Commander-playing community and will be restoring the multiplayer commander banlist alongside the 1-on-1 list with Hour of Devastation.

I wish to put on record my gratitude to them for doing so.

I'm confused by Rerepete at Sat, 05/06/2017 - 16:47
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In the article, it says certain cards are banned as oppressive commanders....so they are also banned from being in a deck at all?

Also, I'm surprised there is no ban on cruise, dig , jitte, and skullclamp

Yes, the banned list does not by AJ_Impy at Sat, 05/06/2017 - 18:05
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Yes, the banned list does not ban as Commander separately from ban in deck.

Cruise, Dig and Jitte I can by Paul Leicht at Sat, 05/06/2017 - 18:39
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Cruise, Dig and Jitte I can see.. They probably didn't want to ban both iconic artifacts (sol ring and skull clamp) that were pushed in almost every product. Hopefully they will revise the list as it becomes apparent what is broken and what isn't.

But speaking of oppressive Commanders, do you remember when Emrakul first came out? Man those were the days...

I am very enthusiastic about by ArchGenius at Sat, 05/06/2017 - 21:16
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I am very enthusiastic about the prospect of 1 vs 1 commander leagues. When you have kids, multiplayer is impossible to do. I fully expect that the ban list will evolve quite a bit over time.

I admit if there is a league by Paul Leicht at Sat, 05/06/2017 - 22:33
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I admit if there is a league experience I am likely to enjoy at all, it may be 1v1. My own feelings about Multiplayer is that currently the client doesn't really support it fully. (It did and it was glorious but alas...) 1v1 at least allows some enjoyment of a weird niche format. That said I hope you're right about the ban list since the list in place doesn't make sense to me from a 1v1 stand point anymore than the multiplayer list did.

I don't play until after the by Leviathan at Sun, 05/07/2017 - 02:42
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I don't play until after the kids go to bed. But maybe that's just me.

Hey Mike welcome back! Also by Paul Leicht at Sun, 05/07/2017 - 03:23
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Hey Mike welcome back! Also not just you I am certain but I am also certain others do.

I generally wait until the by ArchGenius at Mon, 05/08/2017 - 08:43
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I generally wait until the kids are in bed too, but that means I don't have much time to play at all, especI ally when I have to work the next day.

Thanks for this podcast.I by MichelleWong at Sun, 05/07/2017 - 03:40
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5

Thanks for this podcast.

I share your views and frustration about Wizards' decision (conscious or otherwise) to slowly but surely kill off the casual formats. Our casual formats don't have a fat $ sign on them (notwithstanding that we do our fair share in supporting the economy), so WoTC don't seem to care about us.

And I very much doubt that the golden age will return. How can the head of MTG Digital Next (Jeffrey Steefel) ever possibly support such a return to the golden days, when his salary needs to be justified, there are no big $ signs on our formats, and he has not lived through the last 20 years of Magic to care about keeping something beautiful alive. I doubt that he would even know what the Pentium format is if he tripped over it (also known as Color Pie, Color Wheel, 5 Point or Star Magic).

It is like a beautiful and ancient oak tree. You don't make the tree more beautiful by chopping off all the small branches which don't produce the most acorns. You instead have taken away something beautiful.

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the games by patriciabrown at Tue, 07/04/2023 - 21:43
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This comment seems to express disappointment classroom 6x or frustration about the demise of a casual format. It implies that the speaker has observed a pattern of casual formats being discontinued or removed.