Sometimes it’s hard being a sports fan here in the Pacific Northwest. Our Mariners are being rebuilt (In Z we trust), the Seahawks won the division with a losing record (the first time ever in football history that has happened), and the Sonics left town because they were “losing money” (NBA commissioner David Stern has come out and said that twenty-two out of thirty teams have been losing money; so can we have our team back unless you’re going to move all those teams?)

The closest large city with a major sports team is Portland, about 175 miles away, which is a soccer rivalry because, well, no basketball team. After that the next largest city is San Francisco, 800 miles to the south. It’s nice and isolated up here, but it creates an interesting bubble when it comes to sports teams. A majority of the people wear Seattle, or even Portland, teams if they wear sports logos. It is the territory of the Northwest up here since there isn’t that much competition for hometown favorites.

When I travel, I like to wear some Seattle gear, most likely a Mariners hat or a Seahawks sweatshirt. Here’s the thing: When I go into other sports teams’ areas, I don’t know how the other local sports fans are going to react. Sure, there’s some social parameters in places where you aren’t going to have a person attack you on the street for wearing an opposite team’s logo (though that’s how I picture Boston and Yankees fans are in their respective cities). But I always feel like I’m violating some unspoken rule for wearing one team’s colors on another team’s turf.

In Magic, there is a slightly different take on this: when you take your Commander deck to a place outside your normal play zone. You don’t know what you’re going to encounter and how they’re going to react to your deck.

I’ve highly encouraged players to create their own house rules when it comes to Commander. It looks like there is a more official banned list than there was in the past, and for most of the time it works. Not everyone agrees with what’s banned and what’s left out. Some people believe that if it’s not on the banned list, why shouldn’t you play it in your deck? Armageddon, Insurrection, and Time Stretch are often some of the culprits. There are those who feel that they can be too easily abused and often encourage players not to put them in their decks.

At your weekly game at so-and-so’s house, feel free to ban or unban what you want—as along as all players, or a simple majority, agree do whatever you want when it comes to bannings. In fact, if you want to completely change up the rules, you can. Say you want to limit the pool of cards to construct your decks. Only build Commander decks with cards from Standard, save Commanders, since currently there are not a lot of multicolored Legends in Standard (Jor Kadeen being the only one). Another time, we’ll talk about home variations (if you play with any specialized Commander formats, hit me up on Google+ and you may be part of a future article).

Over time, you’ll come to edit your decks to adapt to these rules, as is natural. If no one plays land destruction, why worry about cards that help you prevent it? When this happens, you become overspecialized.

If you’re a nature buff, you know that overspecialization sometimes kills you. If something gets introduced into an ecosystem and you aren’t prepared for it, it will completely overrun the environment. This accidental metagame can cause a huge rift between you and your friends. Again, this is not one of your regulars bringing in a new deck to defeat your unbeatable deck—it’s a new person you’re bringing whom you met at the store, or a friend you didn’t know plays Magic who completely destroys you.

You complain that you guys don’t play with that card, and no one does this combo because it’s annoying and no one has any fun. But how was he supposed to know? Inside your ecosystem is a bubble that no one but you guys know about. Don’t complain because he plays his own way, differently from how you and your friends play.

The opposite is true when you bring your deck to a group that is not your own. If you are going to a card shop or a large event, such as a prerelease, with a deck that is tuned for your local playgroup, this can cause a huge issue. Now you’re playing the metagame of one group in the metagame of another group.

But it’s not just being too casual; it’s also about if your friends are huge Spikes and your deck is ultracompetitive. Fine-tuning your deck to hit all your mana curves is something that not everyone does with Commander decks. I like to do this with some of my decks, but that’s because I don’t mind having a few that are more competitive than the rest (which I can bring with me when I play in those unknown groups if they are a little more cutthroat).

When you introduce this deck into a new environment, that deck that seems pretty tame at home suddenly is the aggressor in this situation. I’ve learned that one card in particular can completely change the way people play their decks. From the “knowledge is half the battle” area of cards comes:

I know people who have banned this card inside their playgroups and others who don’t see a problem with it at all. Control decks hate this sort of thing, as a simple Wrath changes the game completely. Other communities have never even heard of this card, and I’m now introducing a foreign species into their metagame ecosystem (and for that, I’m not sorry; it’s not like this is a new card or anything).

When opponents see you cast this card for the first time, they will have different reactions depending on their experiences. You might be the nice guy at the table; then, when that enters the battlefield, you’re public enemy number-one because the guy to your left has banned that card in his playgroup and suddenly you’re the jerk because of it.

And now we get into the whole metaphor about wearing one team’s logos on another team’s turf. Even though I see some guy wearing a Yankees hat in Seattle, I know he’s just showing his pride. I might think that he’s a jerk for supporting the “Evil Empire” (If you don’t know baseball, the Yankees are the ultimate Spike/Griefer team in the sport), in an area where it’s not kosher to like such a team because of the history the Mariners have with them. However, if someone’s wearing a Pirates hat, I think of them differently, because the team has not had a winning record over 0.500 in eighteen years; they must really love the Pirates (or are just jumping on the bandwagon because of their recent success this year). No, not every team from Pittsburg evokes that feeling (don’t talk to Seattle fans about the Steelers).

I have a psychological reaction to people just by looking at what team they’re supporting, just like when I see them cast a particular card. Everyone does. You hear groans from the regulars as the new guy casts something that is disliked by the group. It’s the guy wearing the San Diego Chargers jersey in Oakland. In real life, it’s completely idiotic and uncivilized to do something because another person is wearing a different team’s colors; usually, you might get some verbal abuse such as name-calling or playful banter heading your way.

In Magic, feel free to politic and go after the person who’s making you mad. The opposite is also true here; don’t be the crybaby if everyone is going after you because you’re playing a card that they don’t like. Complaining even more is more likely to make your opponents continue the beating, or even make you the outcast and cause them to ignore you completely. You think they are the jerks for not letting you play, while they think you’re the jerk for playing the way you do.

Unless everyone understands this dynamic, we won’t thrive as a Commander community.

This is not taking a potshot at creating your own Commander variation or letting a natural metagame/ecosystem evolve; I highly suggest you do, just know the risks associated with it. Playing your deck outside its normal playgroup does have advantages. The obvious is that you can see how it plays with people who play Magic differently. Not everyone thinks the same way you do, and suddenly one card that hasn’t seen any play with your friends is now a huge silver bullet against your deck. Cards you haven’t even considered are now a part of your deck.

Just know that not everyone is going to be happy with the logo on the hat and the cards in your sleeves.