Building a Better EDH

EDH is all about doing big and awesome things. However, sometimes those things are big, but not awesome. In a recent 5-player game, I was running Riku. I untapped with 13ish lands and only one nonland permanent, a Survival of the Fittest. I proceeded to win the game on the spot. (It involved an Avenger of Zendikar, Maelstrom Wanderer, kicked Rite of Replication, and Gaea's Cradle.) That sounds pretty nifty in theory, but a 7 minute turn where the guy who hasn't done anything all game just wins out of the blue isn't an enjoyable experience for anyone. So we set out to change the rules.

In the last few weeks, our play group has had more fun playing EDH than we have in quite a long time. After getting sick of the same games over and over, we decided to create our own ban list. We took the existing official ban list, and just added cards that we felt were making the games overall less fun in a variety of ways. The goal of this new ban list was to make the games more interactive with fresh cards we weren't all sick of seeing. We began by establishing guidelines.

1. Get rid of the cards everybody plays all the time. What exactly do I mean by this? When was the last time you saw a black deck not run Mikaeus the Unhallowed, or a green deck not run Woodfall Primus or Terastadon? This cards are phenomenal in EDH. No question. But every color has several cards that are essentially auto-includes regardless of your general and goal, and then a great deal more that are almost-always-auto-includes. We were getting tired of the same creatures matching up against the same spells over and over and over. We wanted variety. By removing the obvious answers in each category, people had to go looking for new solutions, and they had to make actual decisions about what to use.

2. Reduce stale gamestates. Anyone who plays a good deal of EDH knows how tiring tutors can be. When casting a tutor, there is often a very small number of cards that you repeatedly search for. This means you start seeing the same cards every game, which leads us back to rule 1. (The time it takes to tutor starts to add up as well.) If you play with a 99 card deck and no search effects, you're seeing whatever your deck decides to give you out of that 99. If you're playing a 99 card deck with 10 tutors, you're effectively playing a 30 card deck, because you're just going to get the best choices over and over.

Tutors aren't the only thing that lead to repetitive/stale gamestates though. Heavy graveyard recursion is another. Remember when Primeval Titan was legal? One guy would cast him. Prime Time would die, then he'd get reanimated, then rite of replicationed, then killed, then body doubled, then reanimated, etc etc. I think one game we had something like 26 Prime Time ETB triggers occur. Primeval Titan may be banned, but the same thing was happening with whatever the best creature at the time was. As a group we would deal with a creature, and then spend 6 or 7 turns dealing with it over and over again until a new Best Creature popped up that game.

3. Obnoxious/unwieldy/unfun effects. Time Walk effects. Vorinclex. Myojin of Night's Reach. Insurrection. Rhystic Study. Etc etc. This is more of a personal preference section. These are just cards none of us enjoyed playing with, whether dealing with it or casting it.

You'll notice that "power level" is not a direct guideline. Our goal wasn't to depower the format, but rather, increase the variety of spells that were cast. Depowering may have been a side effect, but there were very few cards that we axed simply because they were too strong.

It's important to remember that the definition of fun is very much subjective. What our group enjoys or dislikes could be quite different from your group. In general, we are seeking interactive, non-combo oriented games with attacking and blocking. Things we tend to dislike are large hasty armies out of nowhere and combos that can kill any number of players (think Triskelion + Mikeaus type of thing).

Now that you can see how we started, I'll go through the current list as of 2/5/2013, and explain our choices a bit.


Green

Skyshroud Claim, Ranger's Path, Hunting Wilds (all the ramp-2's.) - Aaron Forsythe once said that EDH changes the game of Magic so that instead of being about resource management, it's about resource acquisition. Huge amounts of mana go a long way towards helping you win EDH games, and when you have twice as much as the other people at the table, you just become very difficult to deal with very fast. We didn't want to get rid of ALL of green's ramp, just the severe ones. In every EDH game we played there was a subgame of seeing who could ramp the hardest, and we wanted to pull back on it a bit.

Terastadon - In every single green deck ever.

Woodfall Primus - In every single green deck ever. Ever see him in play next to Mikaeus the Unhallowed? Ugh.

Tooth and Nail - Tutor that is in every single green deck.

Eternal Witness - Witness plays right into the "reduce stale gamestates" rule (Chord of Calling for Eternal Witness, get back Chord of Calling). You will notice that Regrowth is not on the list, however. We felt that witness, being a creature, was overall more abusable than Regrowth. We've discussed this one recently, and we may allow it back at some point. We wanted our green players to try Regrowth and things like Deadwood Treefolk first though.

Avenger of Zendikar - In every green deck.

Praetor's Counsel - This started out as someone's pet peeve that we were fine with adding, but we've become convinced that the unlimited hand size is actually very toxic for enjoyable EDH games. I'll discuss it more with Reliquary Tower.

Chord of Calling - Very powerful tutor that is in many green decks and leads to repetitive games. We decided to ban this but allow GSZ. We felt that GSZ was more restrictive in that it could only get green creatures, and wasn't as easy to abuse by regrowing it constantly. So far, we've been happy with the choice.

Survival of the Fittest - Violates both rules #1 & #2.

Seedborn Muse - This pretty handily violates rule #1, and is also a bit of a pet peeve for a member. On its own it's not a big deal, but pair it with something like Capsize and it gets out of hand quickly. Your group may have different experiences.

Vorinclex - Miserable card for everyone.

Mana Reflection - Doubling ALL mana - meaning Sol Ring taps for 4 instead of 2 - has just been too much. This is the type of card that leads to Genesis Wave for 40 on turn 7. That sounds cool, but it's just not a fun to take a game that had an ebb and flow get demolished in one turn because someone suddenly had insane amounts of mana. Mirari's Wake is still legal for the time being.

Sylvan Primoridal - This is actually just a better Primeval Titan, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it officially banned in 2013.


Blue

Chancellor of the Spires - Very repetitive, especially when it targets a Rite of Replication and you can pay the kicker, targeting the Chancellor.

Jin-Gitaxis - Making everyone discard their hands is not fun.

Mystical Tutor - Another tutor. Personal Tutor is still allowed, however. The idea is that while Mystical is obviously fantastic, Personal Tutor won't nearly as prevalent. Nobody has played Personal yet though, so the jury is still out.

Consecrated Sphinx - We went after a lot of the cards that drew you lots of cards very quickly, because they tend to violate rule #2. When you see a lot of cards very quickly, you have a lot of options, and you cast the best card from among them. The best cards tend to be the same ones. Also violates rule #1 pretty handily.

Body Double - Very recursive, especially with Karmic Guide/Reveilark.

Rite of Replication - Take the best creature on the board, and then add 5 more. Also a top priority to be regrown or cast out of graveyards.

Bribery - A tutor that will basically always get the best creature still in any of the decks. Also a bit of a pet peeve card.

Spell Crumple - Hinder is obnoxious, but at least it goes to the graveyard, and with reduced graveyard recursion, it's not as repeatable. But with Spell Crumple being fairly easy to dig up again out of your deck, combined with just how awful having your commander crumpled is, and the reduced creature tutors to get back crumpled commanders, we decided it was just an effect we wanted much of.

Rhystic Study - Did you pay for it? Did you pay for it? Did you pay for it? Did you pay for it? Did you....

Capsize - Capsize that. Capsize that. Capsize that. Untap all my lands with Seedborn Muse. Capsize that Capsize that...

All extra turn effects - A lot of people will likely scoff at this, but honestly, when was the last time you didn't win after taking an extra turn? The effect is absurdly powerful in EDH, and the type of thing that typically results in people getting up to get get a drink and saying "Let me know if I either die or it's my turn."

Diluvian Primoridal - Basically a better Chancellor of the Spires.


Black

Sheoldred - In every black deck ever.

Demonic Tutor (and tutors in general.) - Demonic Tutor is outright banned, and we have a soft limited of 3-5 per deck. Straight tutors like Diabolic and Increasing Ambition should be played in very limited quantities. More restrictive tutors, such as GSZ, Jarad's Orders, etc are allowed in slightly higher quantity. We didn't want to set a hard number on this, so the guiding rule is "don't go overboard."

Pupeteer Clique - Violates #1 and #2.

Mikaeus the Unhallowed - Violates #1 and #2.

Myojin of Night's Reach - Ever have fun after an opponent resolves this? Yeah, me neither.

Geth, Lord of the Vault - Definitely #2, and probably #1 as well.

Sepulchral Primoridal - Far more graveyard recursion than we're comfortable with.


White

Enlightened Tutor - A good bit of #1 and #2. Idyllic Tutor is still allowed, but it's not nearly as pervasive.

Academy Rector - Bumps up against all three guidelines. We decided we were happy not having to see it anymore.

Stonehewer Giant - It was either this or Stoneforge. Ultimately we felt that in the context of EDH, Stonehewer was probably better, especially if he's got Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots on.

Cathar's Crusade - This is partly a pet peeve card, and partly a preemptive strike. When we looked at our ban list we realized that token strategies had lost almost nothing, and were very strong already. We didn't want them to overpower the new format, so we decided to take one of their better cards.


Red

Insurrection - I hate this card in EDH. I think it leads to the least fun games imaginable. Everyone has developed a good healthy board state with lots of creatures and interesting things happening? Good, I'm now going to cast this spell and win the game on the spot.

Reiterate - See Capsize.


Lands

Reliquary Tower - This is the most important card on the list, to the point that I kind of want to axe it in normal EDH games as well. The issue with Reliquary Tower is its insidious ability to wreck a game. All of those draw effects - Consecrated Sphinx, Rhystic Study, Recurring Insight, etc - are not that terrible on their own, because at the end of your turn, you are left with only seven cards. They may be a great seven cards, but you're still limited. With Tower in play though, your hand quickly reaches 15, 20, 30+ in size. Your turns are minutes long. This is where games get awful. You now will just continue ramping and making land drops for the rest of the game, drawing even more cards, and answering everything everyone else does. The entire rest of the table has to devote all of their resources to stopping one player because they have an endless stream of game-ending threats, until eventually you either exhaust their resources with massive threat #14, or you have enough mana to just plow through their permission and removal. If multiple people end up with huge hands, then it becomes a boring slog until one person finally manages to put together a combo or giant hasty attack to kill the entire table in one turn through permission. Reliquary Tower makes EDH games suck.

Maze of Ith - The only EDH decks without Maze are the ones who don't have $30 to drop on it. It invalidates the best attacker at any given time, and since we're trying to encourage games where people win in the red zone, in is at odds with how we want games to play out. Find another way to deal with attacking threats. Mystifying Maze. Brittle Effigy. Whatever.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - This and Cabal Coffers is on the level of Mana Reflection. We had to break it up, and we chose to go with Urborg. All Urborg does alone is fix your mana. Coffers gives you some benefit for playing it if you have enough swamps, but doesn't get truly broken. We wanted people to be able to play Coffers and get some advantage without being too much.

Gaea's Cradle - Same league as Mana Reflection and Urborg.

Volrath's Stronghold - Violates #1 and #2, and is a brutal combo with certain other cards.


Colorless/Artifact

Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre - Violates #1, and mostly just causes a lot of feel-bads. We found that if you untap with this guy or he has haste, we were often uncomfortable attacking with him. Unless someone has a swarm of tokens, that annihilator 4 is a beating, and it only punishes one person at a time. Being indestructible is also very obnoxious and makes him quite difficult to answer in a timely manner, AND he shuffles in to make sure you can cast him again if he gets sacrificed. We do allow Kozilek, however. He's much easier to answer, which we felt was the dividing line between him and Ulamog. He's also the only big (and good) Eldrazi that is legal, so we don't see him too frequently. So far it hasn't been an issue, but I could see others having a different experience.

Artisan of Kozilek - #1 and #2.

It That Betrays - Would have immediately replaced Ulamog and Artisan and just been the next best Eldrazi everyone is playing, plus #2.

Thran Dynamo - #1. As soon as this went, people hand to start making decisions about what type of ramp they wanted. Khalni Gem? Dreamstone Hedron? Now there is actual variety in artifact ramp. Mission Accomplished.

Lightning Greaves - This went, Swiftfoot Boots stayed. Greaves being free was a big reason for it being chosen over Swiftfoot. Having to pay the 1 makes Swift much more fair. It also means that instead of 8 copies of this effect in a 4 player game, it's now only 4 copies, which has gone a long way towards making spot removal effects more playable, which is a good thing.


Multi-Colored

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight - This one is a recent addition. On the one hand, she doesn't immediately do anything to the board and she is completely vulnerable to almost everything. On the other hand, she warps the game state very hard, and it becomes a race to control her. If she just doubled damage that would be fine, because anything that rewards players for hitting each other is good. Halving the damage, however, means that everyone wants to control her so that they don't die to her. Ultimately we didn't like this warping effect. We're aware that there will always be a 'best' creature, but we'd prefer it to be something that didn't have such a drastic effect on player behavior so quickly.


Watch List - These are cards that are currently not banned, but we're watching them in particular to see how they behave in this new territory.

Oracle of Mul Daya

Sylvan Library
Greater Good
Lurking Predators
Doubling Season
Omniscience
Phantasmal Image
Phyrexian Metamorph
Spelljack
Draining Whelk
Spelltwine
Gilded Drake
Liliana Vess
Living Death
Phyrexian Arena
Grave Pact
Stoneforge Mystic
Karmic Guide
Alchemists Refuge
Wurmcoil Engine
Duplicant


Notable Exclusions

Sensei's Divining Top - This is definitely a violator of #1, but the issue is that certain decks really need the help. RW decks, for instance, suffer from having very little in the way of card draw or mana ramp. We are allowing top in order to provide those decks with the ability to keep up with Green decks. We recommend that you use a forgiving Top policy - you can spin it anytime and make your decision while other people are taking their turns, but you have the right to change it depending on how the board changes. This obviously doesn't apply if your decision matters at some point between your turns.

Sol Ring - Bannable on turn 1, but acceptable for the rest of the game. Sol ring is not allowed on turns 1 or 2. After that, it's legal.

Serra Ascendant - 6/6 flying lifelink on turn 1 is incredibly obnoxious. So we modified it to match the DotP oracle text - it's no longer if you have more than 30 life, but if you have 10 more than your starting life.

Mind's Eye - Violator of #1, but non-green/blue decks need the draw badly.

The Red and White Primoridals - While the Green, Blue and Black Primordials are incredibly powerful in a 4 player game (and will lead to recurring themselves frequently, for instance the black one will be reanimating the green one quite a bit,) the Red and White ones are pretty fair. Both are strong effects, but we are welcoming to both. Threatening a few guys (not all of them) and attacking is a good thing, and removal, especially exiling, is something we are happy to get behind.

A lot of combo cards - Nobody in our group runs Arcum Dagsson or Zur or Sharuum or anything really like that. I'm sure there are probably cards we would ban if these commanders were running around in our group, but we just don't know what they are at the moment. Feel free to make additions if these types of combo commanders are giving your group trouble. (Our group consists of Brion Stoutarm, Isperia, Supreme Judge, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, Niv Mizzet, the Firemind, Rakdos, Lord of Riots, Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper and Zedruu the Greathearted.)


There may be other cards that are just as bad or worse than some of these, but we simply haven't encountered them. This list is by no means exhaustive, complete, or correct. It's very much in flux, and was instituted only a few weeks ago. I will say that so far we've been very happy with the games it has resulted in, and it's the most fun EDH we've had in quite some time. I highly recommend giving this list to your playgroup and having everyone build decks that follow it. You'll get to see some cool cards you aren't used to playing with, resulting in fresh interactions and board states.