Some big changes happened December 2nd. Format shifting changes. I’m sure you have some questions.

Um, what happened?

Here’s the deal: R&D loves EDH. They love it so much that last year they accepted the player created format into their comprehensive rules. WotC doesn’t actually oversee the format; that’s handled by Judge Sheldon Menery and his committee. Whenever EDH bans or unbans a card, that’s Sheldon and his posse. WotC just follows suit.

But, WotC and Sheldon have joined together to help the format. Here is the big change:

Elder Dragon Highlander is now known as Commander. Commander (if that seems familiar), is the name of EDH on MTGO. That’s all one format now.

It is believed (Unconfirmed) that due to issues with the word Highlander, they have to change the name of the format if they’re going to market it. The format was originally named from the movie “Highlander” where the tagline of the movie was “There can be only one,” which happens to be the restriction on deckbuilding of the format. Also, the Elder Dragons were first used as Generals, and I’m sure some of you had to go look them up (They came out in Legends).

So, this is just a bookkeeping maneuver. The same also goes with your General, which is now your Commander (which means my EDH blog is now my Commander blog “I’ve Got 99 Problems But a Commander Ain’t One). This fits in with your Command Zone where your General/Commander starts out. It’s not confusing and it makes sense; if you’ve ever explained it to a newer player of the format.

The key here is also something Aaron Forsythe said in his announcement:

Wizards of the Coast and the DCI are not "taking over" the format!

But how do we know that WotC isn’t interfering with EDH? They could be blackmailing Sheldon for all we know, right?

Well, if you want to go all conspiracy theory on me, I can’t stop you. But let me offer an ace up my sleeve. I tracked down this “Aaron Forsythe” (If that’s even his real name) and I asked him, “Hey, Aaron, are you guys taking over EDH/Commander?”

“You want answers?” He spouted back.

“I think I’m entitled.”

“You want answers?”

“I want the truth!”

“YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!”

And there was an awkward pause. I asked him about trying to Legends with off-color activations (Think Bosh, Iron Golem), legalized, which is something I know he’s trying to get pushed through. This was his response:

“Sheldon was in the office for some high-level judge stuff a couple weeks ago, and we had some great conversations about the format, the product, and the rules, both the paper and online versions. Of course, he has a committee that he needs to discuss stuff with, so I really don't know if they're making any changes until their announcements come out. All I think we got agreement on was that they wouldn't ban any of the cards in the Magic: The Gathering--Commander decks prior to the product coming out!”

And then he mumbled “I would rather you just said thank you and went on your way.” Into the night he disappeared.

That is one of the best news of this whole thing (yes, even better than what comes later). There was some worry that WotC was going to take over the format, and they were going to sanction it and turn it into like a Pro Tour or whatever the slippery slope arguments where. They’re not. Sheldon has wanted to keep this more of a casual interactive format and it looks like it’s going to stay that way.

From a personal opinion, that fits just fine with me. That doesn’t mean you can’t go play competitive games, it’s just that for the immediate future, the idea of EDH/Commander isn’t going to change. It’s going to stay exactly the same. The second important part deals with the product they’re making.

Typical Wizards, always wanting us to buy something. Money, money, money.

Whoa, slow down there a minute there. First, there’s a multi-player product being shipped this coming June called Commander. Just like the Planechase and Archenemy products that were released in the previous summers, Commander shares similar product details. The product will have 5 different EDH ready decks.

Listen, I’m still going to use the old terminology this week. But next week, expect the new terms.

Anyway, five different decks, each based for each combination of the enemy Wedge.

Wait, Wedge?

In Shards of Alara, the three color combinations that Jund and Naya, etc, were all part of are called Shards, or Wedge. Look at the back of a Magic card.

As you can see, the five dots represent the five colors in the order White, Blue, Black, Red, and Green. The color has its two allies right next to it while the its enemies are opposite of it. Take a look at Black. Its two allies are Red and Blue which made up the Grixis Shard. If you take a look at Black’s enemies on the card, you can see that they’re Green and White. That’s the enemy Wedge.

All five of the decks are going to be those enemy Wedge colors. And each of them are going to have three Generals. Each one you’ve seen before, they’re the Planar Chaos Dragons, who happen to be enemy Wedge colors. So, for the Black Wedge (Black-White-Green), we’re going to have Teneb, the Harvester in the deck. But, we’re also going to have two new Generals as well.

New? As in brand new? Never been printed?

Does this look new to you?

Pretty sick, right?

We’ll get back to him in a minute.

Each enemy wedge is getting two new Generals. Pretty cool, right? They designed this product so we’d have more Generals to build around. Ten new Generals over the five different decks sounds like a good deal. And each of the Generals get their own oversized card. Just like the Planechase and Archenemy sized cards, you get three oversized cards with each deck. Only their foil.

Foil oversized Generals.

How can get this any cooler?

51 total new cards are being printed.

Well, 41 if you take away the Generals. For the first time, WotC is printing Eternal legal cards that can’t be bought in booster packs. Now, this is a tricky experiment that is being tried here. While I wasn’t able to get any more information out about the new cards, this could hold a problem for the future. The product has been designed to be multiplayer friendly, but what happens if one of the cards turns out to be a desired powerhouse in Legacy or Vintage (the only cards the new ones are legal in)? That card (or cards) is really expensive since that’s the only place where people can get it. That drives up the price of the product and gets it out of the hands of the casual player. What happens then? That could be a huge problem.

Easy: WotC just reprints the card in an upcoming set. Just because it hasn’t been printed before doesn’t mean that they can’t just print it again later. Don’t freak out about this. However, I don’t foresee it as a problem because it was designed as a multi-player product so it seems like we get new cards like this:

Just for yourself, or to gang up on that one guy who’s crushing you. Pretty cool card. Clearly designed for Multiplayer and, in my opinion, we’ll have more of them like it.

As for the boring reprinted cards, we don’t know what we’re getting there as well. They can range from Mythics (I can see Lord of Extinction fit in perfectly in that Black/Green/White deck), all the way to commons (which might be the majority of the cards). Though, this is a great place to see some EDH staples. Possible (just speculating) cards includes Fetchlands, Ravnica Shocklands and favorites like Sol Ring and Solemn Simulacrum.

For $30 you get a ready made EDH deck. For the people who A) don’t have the cards and B) if you haven’t gotten into the format it’s the best opportunity. No, you don’t have to buy the product to continue to play EDH, but this gives you the option to get some new Generals and cards that will help make your decks better. And this isn’t something that Wizards is just doing once and letting go. By printing Commander in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish, they’re basically saying to the whole world “Come play EDH. Join the fun that these people are having.”  This is something that Wizards will continue to support and we should all celebrate that fact.

The good news and bad news is that the release date isn’t until June 17th. It’s bad because we don’t want to wait that long, but good because it allows you to start saving your money. I am excited for this product and I’ve ready pre-ordered these from my local game store.

Next week, you guys asked for it, and now I’m giving it. Deckbuilding advice 101. Oh, and we’re going to be using the “real” terms now. But if you want to keep using the old terms, no one is going to stop you.