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The EDH rules committee has issued a ruling that has eliminated "tucking" from EDH. Essentially, cards that would shuffle a commander into the deck give the owner the option of putting the commander back in the command zone, as well as cards that return the card to owner's hand or place it in the graveyard. So how do we feel about the ruling?
Jason Rice wrote an impassioned piece about the subject and called for essentially the dissolution of the Rules Committee calling them out of touch and calling for the subject of EDH rules to fall under WotC's purview. It's a compelling piece and sparked a lot of debate on Reddit.
On the other hand, Sheldon Mennery was a guest on the excellent EDH podcast, The Command Zone. Sheldon does a very good job of defending the committee's decision and their necessity.
It's a weird debate and I'm sure you all have an opinion even if your opinion is "I don't care about EDH, bruh". Leave it below and let's get a brouhaha started up in here.
Mr. Rice is being hyperbolic. The new rule is not better, it’s not worse, it’s just different. It’s exactly the same as when they removed Mana Burn from Magic. Sure, there are a bunch of cards that became useless or borderline useless with the change, but whatever, those cards join Mudhole in your box and you move on.
In particular, Jason Rice’s suggestion that this new rule ins confusing is hard to understand. Last time on the EDH show, players had to learn that a general going to Exile or the Graveyard from play could be placed in the Command Zone. Now they have to learn that a general who goes anywhere from play can be placed in the Command Zone. What’s so hard about that? Seems easier, more universal. It takes less words to type, anyway.
One more thing. Those interested in Magic Finance should be GUSHING over this decision. A stagnant format is a stagnant market. Little shakeups like this, that cause card prices to change without endangering the integrity of the market as a whole, are a speculator’s bread and butter.
You might also consider linking to Sheldon’s article that explains their reasoning.
Oh, one more thing, Jazzlat, your link to Mr. Rice’s article is wrong. I had to go to the BSB web page directly to find it. Your link takes me to someone else’s pontificating about Dragons of Tarkir decks.
I’ve gotta say that I’m not a big fan of this change. Not because of the change but because of the suddenness of it and the seeming secrecy involved in the change. I hadn’t heard of anyone complaining about tucking Commanders before this change was announced and the change now is going to probably lead to bannings which is always a bad thing for any format. The argument that a playgroup can ignore the change and play as before doesn’t hold any water whatsoever to people like myself who play Magic almost exclusively on MtGO. When the rules are changed or cards banned or unbanned, if you play online, you have no choice in abiding by the changes.
I have a huge problem with a small group of people having this kind of power to change the very way others will be forced to play the format if they wish to play. Where are the event results and other data that shows that such a change was necessary for the health of the format? Where are the players who were complaining that such a change needed to be made? I don’t mean supporters of the change, I mean people who were actively trying to get the rules committee to make this change. When cards are banned by WotC there is always an explanation backed by hard data to support the decision. There is nearly always some kind of debate or argument among the players about IF changes are needed and why. I’m not buying the crap about making the change to make the game easier for new players, there has to be more to the situation that isn’t being told.
IT’S A CASUAL FORMAT! There’s not going to be Pro-tour EDH, There’s not going to be GP EDH, its CASUAL!
EDH was made to be a casual format and people are getting way too out of hand about this.
And since it is CASUAL, when you sit down with your friends, who I am sure as outraged as you are, you just establish before the game whether you are playing with or without tuck rules. THAT’S IT! CASUAL FORMAT SOLVED!
Can I assume that you don’t play Commander on MtGO? Decisions like that can only be made by actual people playing with each other in person. If you wish to play online, you MUST play with the official rules as they are with absolutely no changes to the rules or banned lists.
Yes, I don’t play anything on MTGO. I hear too much bad about it to make it interesting to me.
I can understand that, but people have to understand that rules change. I’m not happy with NFL kickoff’s being from the 35 yard line. Makes for a lot of touchbacks and kicks that go out of bounds, but it happens.
I’m not happy with MLB rules change about stepping out of the box and pitch time limits, and the other stupid rules changes the baseball head office is making, but its a rules change.
Adapt to a new game. It is what it is. You know what this means? You don’t have to run as many tutors and can run cards that actually adhere to your decks game plan.
I can understand your points but comparing this to professional sports isn’t quite the same thing. The rules changes in the NFL you mentioned were debated and voted upon by the league owners, while I recall no such debate in this situation. Furthermore, if a commissioner or other executive makes decisions that prove to be bad, that person can lose his or her job. How exactly do you go about replacing somebody on a supposedly informal committee?
The rules change actually won’t really change my game play as I don’t have a single such effect in any deck I currently play. I just don’t like the idea of a group that has zero accountability being able to make changes that effect the entire community. It ticks me off that a non-Wizards entity has changed the way that some people’s cards play.
A casual EDH game goes like: “hello, want to play EDH? OK we are 4 now.”
Sit down, roll die and start playing land go for the first two turns.
If you need to discuss rules first, it’s not that casual to me. So referring to the fact that you can ignore the rule is a bad thing. We need uniform rules.
Seriously, I’m not going to start a game and ask first if we play with or without the tucking rule. 40% of the players need to learn what I mean with ‘tucking’ in the first place.
Anyway, it’s about time to get rid of the very very useless partial mulligan?
Hi, we’re looking for someone to partner with on a book about MTG. Any interest?
Derrick