The third and final CommandFest of 2019 was as rousing a success as the first two. It was the perfect closeout event to Commander’s most exciting year ever, and a thrilling window into what 2020 might hold. The weekend was full of epic games and wonderful players, meeting up with old friends and making new ones. I’ll share with you two of the weekend’s highlights, which bookended my activities. The first was game full of some of Commander’s most notable figures, a strong opener to the festivities. The second was a roundtable with a handful of folks that I met at during event (plus a few I already knew) and I thought had some worthwhile things to say.
The Play-by-Play
I gathered together Commander Advisory Group member, streamer, and cosplayer Olivia Gobert-Hicks; Pro Tour Historian Brian David-Marshall; and arguably the most well-known Commander YouTube star, The Professor from Tolarian Community College. I figured that we’d be scattered to the winds over the course of the weekend, meeting and greeting with some of the nearly 1,500 people who showed up for the event, so it’d be one of the few times we’d be able get together. Thanks to Friend of the Show Chris Shipper, who recorded the session. Chris, who is always excellent to play and hang around with at events, first started recording play-by-plays for me back in November 2015 at GP Atlanta. He’s a regular at SCG shows, and we’re always happy to have him. And I can even read his handwriting.
We had the requisite Rule 0 discussion in the week before we started. None of us have really competitive decks, but we didn’t mind playing things that were reasonably strong. A game going too long would delay us getting out among the fans, so we were okay with a game that might end before Turn 10.
Brian played Estrid, the Masked; Prof play Sygg, River Guide; I had my new Myths and Legends of Korvold, Fae-Cursed King; and Olivia played Najeela, the Blade-Blossom.
Turn 1
Brian: Forest.
Prof: Island, Aether Vial.
Me: Forest.
Olivia: Spire Garden.
Turn 2
Brian: Plains.
Prof: Ticks up Aether Vial to 1. Plays Terramorphic Expanse and cracks it for Plains.
Me: Swamp.
Olivia: Mountain, Seek the Wilds and gets Forest. At end of turn, Brian casts Eladamri’s Call for Argothian Enchantress. It’s already on.
Turn 3
Brian: Island, Mystic Remora, Argothian Enchantress. It seems like his sequencing might have been incorrect, but he also knows that none of us are going to be able to pay for Mystic Remora if we cast noncreature spells, so his hand is going to be juiced anyway.
Prof: Aether Vial to 2. City of Brass, taps it (39) for Kopala, Warden of Waves.
Me: Nurturing Peatland, tap it (39) for Champion’s Helm.
Olivia: Forest, Lay of the Land for Swamp, Prismatic Omen. All colors online.
Turn 4
Brian: Pays one for Mystic Remora’s cumulative upkeep. Plays Hinterland Harbor, then casts Ghostly Prison, drawing another card off the Enchantress. At end of turn, Prof uses Aether Vial to put Rootwater Thief onto the battlefield. Brian discards two lands, not a good sign for the rest of us.
Prof: Keeps Aether Vial at two. Casts his commander, then plays Azorious Chancery, bouncing Plains. Sends Rootwater Thief my way (38), although he doesn’t have enough to pay for its triggered ability.
Me: Mountain, Grand Warlord Radha. Swing it at Olivia, since she’s the only one open (I’d have to pay two to hit Brian). With the mana I get from Radha attacking, I equip Champion’s Helm.
Olivia: Thalia, Heretic Cathar. Prof, who may or may not have a sleeve company as one of his sponsors, has questions about my Wild and Free kitten sleeves, mostly wondering why I don’t play sleeves from said sponsor, since they’re clearly superior. I tell him when they have kittens on them, we might talk. While he’s chattering, he also puts Judge of Currents onto the battlefield via Aether Vial.
Turn 5
Brian: Doesn’t pay for Mystic Remora. It’s done its job and gotten him deeper into his deck. Plays a Forest and Overgrowth onto his Plains. Casts Estrid and uses its +2 ability to untap things. Casts Fertile Ground. I get the sense that if we don’t interact with his stuff quickly, we’re in trouble.
Prof: Continues with Aether Vial at two. Plays Plains and Sage of Fables. Sends Rootwater Thief my way again, this time exiling Mikaeus, the Unhallowed from my library.
Me: I send Radha at Estrid, since I don’t have to pay the Ghostly Prison, killing it. Somewhat desperately, I cast Korvold, sacrificing a Forest to its enters-the-battlefield trigger.
Olivia: Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers and Lavisa Coldeyes.
Turn 6
Brian: Plains, Wargate for zero, getting Serra’s Sanctum. When he casts Words of Wind, I know we have a single turn or we’re done for. He follows up with Estrid again, plusses her, and casts Luminarch Ascension and Attunement. Prof and Olivia both have to look at the latter.
Prof: Halimar Depths. Pays four to attack Brian (37), putting him at (41).
Me: Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper. Pay two to attack Brian with my commander and send Radha at Prof in order to get the trigger. Sacrifice Radha to Korvold to hit for eight, Brian to (29). All I have is Goreclaw, which I cast, hoping that Olivia can get us out of this mess.
Olivia: Swamp, Champion of Lambholt, Najeela. Unfortunately, no answers.
Turn 7
Brian: Island, puts a Mask token on Serra’s Sanctum, meaning he can untap it with Estrid’s first ability and generate large sums of mana. Casts Carpet of Flowers, then uses Words of Wind’s replacement effect to bounce a permanent from everyone, his Estrid being the relevant one. He casts Estrid again, uses the +1, then activates Attunement, drawing three and discarding four. He casts Trade Routes, recasts Attunement, and we can see where this is all going. He’s going to be able to repeat this loop enough times to bounce all of everyone’s permanents, and it’s a scoop-worthy moment. Painfully, Olivia reveals the Cyclonic Rift in her hand, which would have gotten us out of it on her turn.
It’s slightly unsatisfying to end a game like that relatively early, but it’s not the worst thing and clearly simply a matter of taste. With that same setup and another opportunity, I would have gone for killing Brian on my Turn 7, so it’s reasonable that he would defend himself (although I certainly wouldn’t have targeted him if he had a less-threatening battlefield state). While I had hoped to bring slightly more involved action, it’s important to show not just the games that end up exactly how we want, but how some naturally play out. All experiences in Commander are valid, even the ones that don’t resonate with us individually.
The Roundtable
Over the first two days of the event, I had played with and talked to quite a few people. It felt like quite of a few of them had things we’d like to hear more about. I arranged with Olivia and her CAG colleague Adam Styborski (the only two other RC or CAG folks there) to join me in sitting with a half dozen or so of them and just chat about whatever they wanted to. Anyone else in the hall was invited to spectate, trying to keep the numbers reasonable for a more coherent conversation—we didn’t want a panel, we wanted a dialogue. Too many voices at once becomes unmanageable.
We asked what folks wanted to talk about. Again, this was about addressing anything that these folks, who we felt represented a pretty good cross-section of the player base (something I had in mind when asking each individual to join us), had on their minds. We wanted to listen more than talk. When they hesitated, Olivia threw out the question, “What’s your favorite thing about Commander?” That got them talking and helped lead into other topics.
The first one was getting to play cards you don’t see in other formats, from old favorites to new things that might not find a home in Standard or Modern. I think I heard someone murmur, “I can still play Oko.” It’s always fun to play cards that other people have to read, especially when they then go, “Oh, that’s awesome!” Even in the most popular way to play Magic, discovery is still very much part of the experience.
Building community, along with the positive social dynamic, was another strong answer. I think because of the less-oppositional nature of Commander compared to other formats, it’s easier for us to come together, even when our goals or motivations might diverge. Back in the early days, I wouldn’t have imagined 1,500 people in the world playing the format, let along gathering in the same room together for an entire weekend. Amid all the epic games ever played, the real legacy of Commander will be its ability to create a broad, diverse community and truly bring people together.
One of the folks brought up that they loved the fact that there was no pressure in Commander games. They’re a regular competitive player in other formats, and they said they loved the times when playing the 100-card decks could help them decompress. This is another of the secret of Commander’s popularity, and part of its founding principle: it’s a rest from normal competitive Magic. The critical point is that we’re not set in opposition to the competitive scene, we’re an alternative.
An outside-the-box point that someone brought up is that they like the idea that there’s an ongoing, sometimes simultaneous and constantly-rotating set of Archenemy games going on during play. In many circumstances there’s some kind of 3v1 dynamic to the game, which may shift from turn to turn or even spell to spell. I hadn’t ever thought of things that way, but as soon as the person explained it, I immediately smelled what they were cooking.
The biggest part of the discussion centered on communication. All wrapped into what dominated our two-hour talk were Rule 0, power level, and resources for improving communication. The players, who self-identified across all strata of play, from the most competitive to the loosest casual, focused on the desire to find the right people to play with, both at their LGS and when they travel to events like CommandFest.
What folks focused on was the idea that we could help develop resources for player communication. The problem which wove its way through the conversation was that different people have a wide range of scales for assessing things like power level. What’s one person six might be another’s eight. In the end, we couldn’t exactly come to any consensus on strict definitions, mostly because there are too many variables. Does having Mana Crypt in an otherwise casual deck make the deck not casual? Does the presence of one or two janky cards in a highly tuned deck drop its rating? What we came around to was that we don’t need to have precise definitions for anything, but that we need to help players talk about talking. It’s less about the specifics of the communication than skills in improving how we communicate.
Players are looking for commonly available resources to help communicate. They brought up content creators having platforms like mine here at SCG and using them to foster the communication discussion. Someone suggested that I go on Tolarian Academy and have the communication discussion with The Professor—something that he had brought up over the weekend. Look for me to go on his show at some point in the first half of 2020. The basics of strong communication and what that means to Commander will be a good focus for such an episode. Prof’s whole brand is about helping the community, so it fits right in.
Something which I communicated to the group is that part of the new Commander website will be exactly the kind of resources that they were looking for. We’d like to have a series of pinned articles and/or videos that we can point folks to for such issues as communication. We’ll both be linking to existing work and creating new items to help both beginning and veteran players navigate the processes of playing the format.
The roundtable chat is a format that I would like to continue to explore for future CommandFests and similar events. Panels are great at sending out information. More intimate discussions are better at the finer points of player concerns. In a panel, a player might ask a question and get an answer, but in a roundtable, there’s a follow-up and then back-and-forth on the topic. We get to go deeper. CommandFest DC was put together in a short period of time, so there wasn’t the opportunity for as much advance planning. For future events, I imagine we’ll be able to set up things like this roundtable beforehand, select participants, and even record or stream it to make it available to an even broader audience. I like the range of possibilities.
Summary
It was a grand weekend. I jammed somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 games with the folks who attended. We had great games and great chats. The experience also informed how we in the broader sense and I specifically might approach doing such events.
One idea that came up were scheduled time slots. I usually run a sign-up sheet to play so that there’s no question about who was waiting first. I might even refine that further, limiting game times to something like 75 minutes within defined boundaries. That way, when folks sign up, they know they’ll be in the X o’clock slot and can go get other games (or lunch, or whatever) and then know that we’ll start at a certain time.
My main regret is that I never have enough time to play with all the great folks that want to, so I’d like to find ways to play with even more. Doing events like CommandFest are a great deal of fun for me; we’ll work on finding ways to make them even more so.