This has been a tumultuous week, and at the time of writing, it’s still early. We had a very sad announcement from someone very important to the community. MTGMom.com is going to be closing down due to, ironically, Megan Holland’s responsibilities as an actual mother. MTGMom was a fantastic site, and its shutting down has a lot of people in the community feeling a bit lost. I wish Megan and her family all the best. Let’s have some perspective here: This is a children’s card game. I don’t see myself exiting the game any time soon, but I understand completely how a new human life can take priority in this situation. I’m hoping someone steps up and fills the void this site’s closing will create.

In other site-closing-and-void-opening news, there will be a big shakeup over at LegitMTG.com. Jon Medina is going to be exiting the game indefinitely to focus on aspects of his personal life. Jon has been very forthcoming about the reasons for his departure. Despite what appears to some people like an adversarial relationship between Jon and me, it’s all in good fun; therefore, I won’t go into too much detail. He wrote a heartfelt goodbye to his fans, and this posting has a few details that he has made public but that I don’t feel good about repeating. You can find them at the link I provided.

This Is Turning into a Real Bummer, Man

Sorry, I know. Something that cheered me up was realizing that these things tend to happen in threes—MTGMom was profiled back in March, and Jon was actually in my article last week. With Jesse Smith declaring he was done with the community for a while soon after his profiling back in February, perhaps the circle is closing (I hope!). A few of my followers have declared that these recent, sobering events are the result of the “Who to Follow curse” and have been suggesting people for me to profile next (not with the best of intentions either).

I guess what I’m trying to say is that life is all about balance; the famous “Who to Follow bump” is a double-edged sword. The bump giveth, and the bump taketh away. This week, the bump tooketh away, and it tooketh away too close to home. I’d like to see a little bit more giveth, frankly, so I decided to giveth the fans something they’ve been asking me for. I had several people contact me on Twitter over the last week or two about some Commander content, and I feel that the time is right.

I have a lot of time to kill at Grands Prix after I finish buying and selling and schmoozing, so I will usually see if I can’t locate the rotating cast of people I met through Gathering Magic who play a lot of Commander, including Andrew Magrini, Omar Hernandez, Carlos Gutierrez, Adam Styborski, and a few of the people I want to profile in today’s WTF—a great group of players who take their fun very seriously. I got off on the wrong foot with Commander because I took too spikey an approach to it (people don’t like when you play Maralen of the Mornsong ANT), and I didn’t “get” a format where a deck that was too good was considered a bad thing. Watching a good group of Commander players helped me “get it,” and I want to share some of them with you today. Whether you already “get it” or not, these three gentlemen will help you get even more out of it. Without any more exposition, I present Who to Follow – Commander Edition.

Jonathan Richmond

Where You Know Him From: The Jinxed Idols podcast

Current Title: Thieving Magpie’s biggest fan

Social Media:

Twitter

Jinxed Idols

I’m sure somewhere on the Internet there is a better picture of “Norbs,” but my Google Fu is not that strong, and Bing Fu isn’t a thing. I kid you not: When I typed his name and Twitter name into Google, I found thirty pictures of Christine Sprankle and two pictures of me before I even found this one: a screen cap from a YouTube video. Norbs is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, and he could teach Anthony Weiner a thing or two about deflecting unwanted attention. If it helps, here is an artist’s rendering.

This is all you need to know: Penn State hat, Thieving Magpies, and Commander decks.

Though he can be sometimes unassuming in a conversation—during the recent “Meavy Meta” crossover podcast, I forgot he was in the Skype chat with us for an hour before he said something—he holds it down on his own podcast turf on Jinxed Idols and, more importantly, holds it down on Twitter. If what you’re looking for is purely someone to follow on Twitter with insightful things to say about Commander, there’s a reason I put Jonathan first.

Yeah, I forgot; he loves Minotaurs as much as he loves Thieving Magpies. I found this tidbit of incriminating evidence in my googling. The man loves Minotaurs so much he is playing Hurloon Wrangler. He thinks I won’t just take off my pants, denim jacket, denim baseball cap, and denim boxer briefs so I can block it. He’s wrong.

Norbs is probably most responsible for teaching me to enjoy playing Commander (I have to correct myself since I still default to calling it EDH because I’m a purist deep down) out of anyone I know. His tweets are insightful, his contribution to Jinxed Idols is irreplaceable, and he’s always up for answering a question from a follower or lending a spare Commander deck to a bum like me. This is a snap-follow even if you’re not super-jazzed about Commander. He’s so close to a thousand; I know you guys can do it. It’s about time the bump did something nice this week.

Uriah Oxford, a.k.a. CMDRDecks

Where You Know Him From: Gathering Magic I hope

Current Title: Commander Expert

Social Media:

Twitter

GatheringMagic Archives

YouTube Channel

Uriah, from what I understand, is responsible for nearly all of the content that falls under the CMDRDecks heading here at Gathering Magic. In case there are a few of you who read this site and are interested in Commander but haven’t checked these videos out, you should. They are high-quality and informative, and honestly, they speak for themselves. Check all of them out—seriously.

Uriah is another person who’s always ready to throw down Commander-style. He spent the first night of Grand Prix Las Vegas with us at the infamous party house, and there was a lot of Commander action to be had. He always has spare decks, and he always has something new. And best of all, he’s all over Twitter.

Uriah is pretty easy to pick out of a crowd—if the Commander-themed tee shirt he’s likely to be wearing isn’t enough of a clue, the mohawk should give it away. Go say “hi” at an event, watch his videos, and follow him on Twitter—the last one is the least you can do, and I think his tweets also speak for themselves.

Jason Clark

Where You Know Him From: The Brewport Avenue Podcast

Current Title: Gamer and Writer

Social Media:

Twitter

Podcast Archives

Fellow podcaster and fellow Jason, Jason Clark comes highly recommended by the Commander community on Twitter. I’ve noticed a lot of what he’s been tweeting recently, and it’s all been good stuff, so I feel confident backing him. Brewport Avenue is a solid podcast, so I figured I’d try to bring his Commander wisdom to the people.

You’ll see a lot of “collateral” insightful comments about the game that aren’t specific to Commander if you follow Jason. I guess you’ll have to suck it up.

That does it for the week. I relied heavily on community input for this installment because Commander is a bit outside my sphere of expertise. I did build my first complete Commander deck this week, though, and I can think of much worse ways to spend time than playing Magic for fun for a change. If you love Commander and aren’t following all three of these guys, make that adjustment, and you won’t regret it. If you don’t love Commander, ask yourself why, and maybe give it another chance. I finally did, and I wish I’d gotten on board sooner. I think I finally “get it.” Commander isn’t a format that should be fun to win. It’s a format that should be fun to play, and once you grasp that lesson, you will have a much better time in general. Grab a legend, jam in some lands and mana rocks, put in a few large, impractical creatures you’ll never cast otherwise, and go enjoy yourself. That’s really all there is to it.