It’s that time of the year. Writers and TV shows alike are doing In Memoriam, annual reviews, best ofs, watching the stretch run to the NFL playoffs, worrying if we’re getting that new PS3 game for Christmas, but the most important thing on the mind of every good little boy and girl is “What’s the State of EDH?”

As far as I’m concerned, the state of the format is healthy. We’re enjoying unprecedented popularity; we have great support from our friends at Wizards of the Coast; and for the most part, folks are really getting the spirit of the format. I get that the foundations and intentions behind the format aren’t for everyone, that there are folks who want to play ultra-Spike and 1v1 versions, and I’m here to tell you that’s okay with me. Want I want most is for people to enjoy themselves (so long as they’re not making others miserable), and if they enjoy EDH in a way that I don’t, I’m not going to try to change their minds or make them stop.

That said, there is a vision for the format, and that’s the one the RC is going to stay true to. We’re not going to ban (or unban) cards because they’re broken (or not) in 1v1. I think of the flavors of EDH (let’s call them casual and competitive without assigning any value to the labels—we’ll just use them for convenience sake at the moment) as softball vs. baseball. As designed, EDH is definitely softball. Yes, we recognize that there’s a hyper-competitive version where they pitch the ball (which is considerably different) faster; there’s more room on the field and between bases; and they only have 9 players, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to get rid of our 10th fielder or change the third-strike-foul-and-you’re-out rule. EDH is Magic where there may just be keg of beer near second base.

Are there cards that we have our eyes on? Sure. There’s a great deal of chatter about Primeval Titan and about Consecrated Sphinx, but I don’t think either has a real chance of getting on the Banned List any time soon. If I were to pick, I’d say the Sphinx is a worse of the two but still not all that awful. The card that I’m hating these days—even when I’m the beneficiary—is Trade Secrets. It’s almost always more collude-y than a 5-0 split with Fact or Fiction. It’s not going to end up on the Banned List, but it’s the kind of card I’d prefer to see people avoid.

Another topic of discussion has been format rotations and/or additional sub-formats. The RC has no plans to implement either. I think that there can be a bit of fatigue in Eternal formats since cards don’t rotate out, but the field in EDH is so wide open that we’re not suffering like Vintage might be. The fact that many players aren’t worried about competitive balance is probably another. Additionally, one of the great draws to the format is that we can play all those janky cards of yesteryear. I wouldn’t want to take that away from anyone.

Is there room for Modern or even Standard EDH? Maybe, although as I mentioned a few weeks back, I don’t think Modern EDH would be all that good. If there were some groundswell of grass roots support for either, I don’t think it would detract from anything. If Armada Games decided to have a Standard EDH League, I’d build a deck and participate, just to see how it goes. I wouldn’t want the effort of having to retune all my decks for every rotation, but once might be fun. I haven’t really given any thought to it—it might even be more broken than normal EDH is. I probably won’t give it too much attention until I need to, which I don’t see as any time soon.

The thing that’s most troubling to me right now is the four-man collusion-fests run at big events. I’d love to figure out a way for the TOs to still be able to run EDH pods without a significant number of players walking away with bad experiences, which I think is happening. I get that there are some folks who don’t like losing (or are just sore losers), so any loss will be a “bad experience” for them, but I’m talking more about the people who are earnestly looking for a chance to play and have some fun but never get the opportunity to because of the two guys that come with one-combo/one-counterspell deck.

The problem I see with points systems (for these kinds of events—I think that for store leagues, a points system is still the best option) is that they require additional bookkeeping and administration, thereby dragging down the play experience or requiring additional resources from the TO. Armada’s Michael Fortino imagined an achievements system where there was a card on the table for each achievement, and when you did the whatever, you picked up the card and put it in your stack. We haven’t had further discussions on that, but it might be a solution. I’ll bring it up with him again and see what comes of the chat.

I thought that flattening the prize structures might help, but players have already demonstrated that they’re willing to put a good deal of work in the $3 or $5 extra they’ll be making (in store credit). I get the allure of caring that you can win on turn 2 if there is big money on the line, but otherwise, I just can’t plug into it. Anyway, unless the prize structure is completely flat, in that you get back what you put in and no more, I can’t see attitudes changing.

I can see TOs perhaps promoting tiers of games (let’s go back to those labels of casual and competitive) so that players know what kind of experience they’re in for, but there’d be nothing preventing the Spikes from just signing up for the Timmy events. I supposed that making the prize payouts different would be an answer there. I’d love to see one of our TO friends be able to test that out, but I imagine the sampling would only be big enough at an SCG Open or a Grand Prix. The 3-4 or even 6-8 pods that might get run at the PTQ probably just aren’t enough to get a good feel off of.

The good news is that this is a relatively small concern for the format as a whole. Local communities seem relatively healthy; players are happy; and we have a great deal to look forward to in 2012. In the end, I’m pretty happy with where we are right now.

MUSICAL INTERLUDE: Album Review of Dream Theater, A Dramatic Turn of Events

It’s no secret that I’m a huge DT fan, so feel free to consider an appropriate an amount of bias here. My first concern of course was the departure of the best-non-Neil-Peart-drummer, Mike Portnoy. Fortunately, his replacement, Professor Mike Mangini, is thoroughly awesome. The album itself is extremely good, starting with the power of the first cut, “On the Backs of Angels,” a dark, broody piece that shows off the virtuosity of every member of the band. After a first few critical listen-throughs, my favorite cut is “Build Me Up, Break Me Down,” which has the power I want from a DT song but also has a pretty good hook. I also like that the sixth cut, “Outcry,” returns to some of the same thematic elements as the first song. If I were to have one criticism of the album as a whole, it’s that there’s one too many down-tempo tracks, although that’s no criticism of the tracks themselves (“This is the Life” being particularly good for a ballad). I feel like the otherwise muscular flow of the piece as a whole is interrupted by pulling it back a notch. That said, it’s a minor chink in the armor of an otherwise excellent piece. It’s a fine follow-up to “Black Clouds and Silver Linings,” which I was less happy with. It’s no “Images and Words,” but that’s not exactly a crime. 4 out of 5.

WHAT’S NEXT

Since a number of folks have asked, I’ll tell you that there are three basic things that I’m going to be doing in my post-L5 life. First is being a househusband. My beautiful wife provides us with a great living, and since I retired from the US Air Force in 2004, my part of the arrangement is to take care of the house. I actually don’t mind laundry so much, since I can watch cool TV shows while I’m doing it. I enjoy cooking, so that’s something I’d probably be doing even if were working a regular job.

The second is wine consulting. I’ve already started on one project and will after the holidays be looking for a few more. I love the culture of wine, so getting a little more involved with it will be enjoyable—even more so if I can earn a little extra cash doing it. Keeping up with the blog (which I’ve neglected for a bit) will be a part of that.

My big push for 2012 will be fiction writing and creation, more specifically creation, adaption, and eventually publishing of materials from my Four Kingdoms of Therduin world. The Four Kingdoms started as an RPG setting back in 1987, and I’ve never left it. I’m writing a novel (on spec) set in one of the areas of the world (which I’ve been promising to finish for 5 years or so—and now I really have no excuses) and doing development on many of the others.

One of the tropes of fantasy fiction that I’m not a fan of is the “inconsequential person with no skills becomes great hero overnight.” There’s generally a prophecy or ancient tale involved. I want to tell a story about the already-powerful, whether that power is personal or temporal, and how their actions impact the future. Zolan’s Scar is about three such characters and how their coming together explodes into a conflict that will shape their world—or break it all to pieces. The touch of flame never cools.

The novel is only one piece. I’m still working out what form the publishing is going to take, but I envision a series of non-systems specific (or, if it’s going to pay off, d20—although I’d have to bring in a system expert to help) RPG supplements and campaign guides. Publishing on the web is the way of the 21st century, and I see a wiki-like core and product-specific overlays. We’ll see how it will all work out, and probably more importantly, if there’s enough income in it to make it worthwhile.

There’s a particular project that I’d like to share with you right now (although it’s been brewing for quite some time) because I’m going to solicit some help. One of the problems of world creation is that a single creator infuses a good deal of his own personality into everything, which is fine until it’s obvious that everything springs from a single creator (please, no theological debates). To the end of getting multiple authors’ feels into the world, I present “The Lost Cities of Nevinor.”

Here are the basics: Three thousand years ago, vibrant cultures existed on both the northern and southern continents. Then The Destroyer rose and nearly wiped out all of civilization. Despite the best efforts of the northerners to close off access to the south, the south wasn’t spared. Communication between the two great civilizations was severed. In the aftermath (how the world wasn’t completely destroyed is an answer for later), both civilizations eventually recovered, albeit independently. The northern continent developed into The Four Kingdoms of Therduin. In the south, it’s The Lost Cities.

Unlike the somewhat-unified north, the Lost Cities developed into fifteen powerful and independent city-states. Here’s where the help comes in. I’d like for fifteen different writers (or perhaps teams, although each team would have a discreet leader/coordinator) to develop each of them, under some editorial guidance and initial setup from me. I’d certainly entertain someone taking on more than one if they feel up to it.

The Lost Cities will be a project done on spec. I obviously can’t pay anyone for their contributions at the moment, but I promise if there’s something to be earned, I’ll be sharing it with everyone involved. This is one of those things that I’d like to do because it’s cool more than I think that is has a significant financial upside. And who knows? It might be a springboard for someone into something more lucrative. Note that this is a personal project and in no way affiliated with SCG. Although I might occasionally mention it in this column, any eventual publishing will come elsewhere.

If you’re interested in this, email me (firstDOTlastATgmail), and we’ll talk about further details. Before you do, please consider that it will be a commitment. I’m not looking for casual interest but something that you’ll be proud to have been a part of when we get done (although I think it’ll never be “finished” because I’d also like each of the Cities to take on a life of their own). Additionally, note that the Four Kingdoms is a low magic, low fantasy world. There aren’t 20th level wizards behind every rock, flying desks, or things that exist just so that adventurers can kill them. Obviously, being at its heart an RPG setting, there have to be conflicts that challenge characters and things for those characters to discover, but I’d like to think that it’s anything but a “standard” fantasy RPG world. Maybe one of the Monday Night Gamers can weigh in as well.

As far as other stuff goes, I’ve also already mentioned joining the PT coverage team. I’m looking forward to working alongside awesome folks like BDM and Rich Hagon and having some fun while we’re doing it. Other than that, I think the rest of what’s next for me is being lucky enough to live the good life.

Back to EDH-specific things, I’m working on a “You Did This To Yourself” deck inspired by Parallectric Feedback. I’m not sure why Ruhan is suggesting itself as the General, but sometimes you just listen to the Muse. Hopefully I’ll have a draft ready by next week. Until then, have a safe and Merry Christmas. Thanks for a great 2011, and I hope we can get some of that Peace on Earth.