EDH can end up being a very complex game, and I feel like this is something regular EDH players don’t think about too often. I’ve played EDH for two years now, and I’m sure some of you have played it for even longer. By now, you probably know what to expect out of every commander that sits down in front of you; you know what staples of each colors there are, you know infinite combos in each color, and when someone plays a card, more often than not, you already know what it does. You need to keep in mind that when someone just entering the game has no idea what to expect, at all, ever.
Most non-EDH players have heard that EDH has wacky cards, but they don’t quite know what they do. Don’t think they’re dumb though; you show a player two cards and they’ll figure out what it does, just don’t expect them to know things by name just yet. Something that can be very daunting for inexperienced players is seeing a player ‘go off’. A good example of this happened to me recently.
A friend of mine knew how to play Magic, so I offered to teach him how to play EDH. Previously he had only done variants of sealed, and hadn’t played any constructed before. I lent him one of my decks, and sat down across from him and we played. It was late in the game: I had out Zendikar Resurgent, Seedborn Muse, and Alchemist’s Refuge, and was mostly casting enchantments that would let me draw more cards. It took a few turns to draw into it, but eventually I had one of my infinite combos in hand, and I played it. I showed him what it did and said, “I win, good game, you played that deck pretty well”. Admittedly he did, he got me down to about 6 life. I wasn’t quite ready for him to respond with “I hate this, I don’t want to play this anymore.” It was our first game of EDH ever, so I of course had to ask the obvious “Why?” He knows I usually need a bit of explanation to lay a topic, so he thought about it for a few minutes and came up with something like this: “I saw that you were casting more things than me and had more mana to do it, and I didn’t know what I was doing wrong.”
That comment really kind of struck me; I had never thought of it that way. I’ve been on his side of the table before, watching players suddenly steal away the game, and I just know that it’s natural and happens most games. I only know this because I have more experience than him. He was running an aggressive and creature based deck while I was running combo. After a bit of talking, it just came down to the fact that he liked the style of the deck I was playing better (I kind of figured he would be a blue player). I didn’t really want to swap decks with him because I knew the deck I was using doesn’t do too hot in 1v1, or against creatures for that matter, and I didn’t want him to be losing just because I would then have the better deck. I did convince him to play another round, he did win (Raving Dead managed to land a hit, then he ticked me down with Mogis), and he seemed to feel better about that.
The take-away here is that newer-players are going to expect the amount of variety that EDH brings; think of Standard right now, most decks are tempo. EDH has a much, much wider variety of things that can happen, and it can be quite daunting for new players to actually see that happen. Think of a time where you used your opponents’ cards against them: like someone playing Time Stretch while you have Misdirect in hand, or an opponent casting Notion Thief the turn before you drop Consecrated Sphinx. These interactions aren’t the norm in other formats, so it can be incredibly difficult for a new player to keep track of four board states at once.
There is a solution to this, though. Let the player build a deck (with your guidance!) out of either their cards or yours, if you’re willing. Make it so they know what’s going in, but make it clear that there’s no guarantee they’ll get one specific card. It would be impossible for you to boil down your entire EDH history into one teaching lesson, so make sure they understand that it’s okay to lose. EDH is a process of not just reading one opponent, but three or four, and it can be incredibly difficult. Caudle them a bit, make them feel better if they get discouraged. Most of all, make sure they’re having fun.
This article marks a new series I’ll be writing, and I hope to continue it for at least a few more parts. The topics will mostly focus on what problems newer players will come across and how to address them as experienced players. Hopefully you’ll be able to use these with friends or family that you’re trying to get into Magic, or best case scenario, if someone new comes to your store and wants to learn.