Introduction
cEDH, Standard and some commentary on how terrible the format is
Saturday Assignment: cEDH 5k
cEDH was a new one for me. After receiving my schedule, I asked around for tips on judging cEDH - the most common advice was to police table talk to maintain pace of play.
The event was run at regular REL without any particular multiplayer addenda using Spicerack. We had just over 80 players in the event. Rounds were 80 minutes, stop on that turn or after 20 minutes ending in a draw. Wins being 5 match points, draws 1. We had some Spicerack technical glitches in R1, but besides that I think everything went quite smoothly in the Swiss.
Generally it seemed that players were quite cordial in their attitudes, and were able to handle most things on their own. They were also very on top of the triggers, moreso than Standard players it seemed who are often used to Arena handling triggers for them.
It was interesting seeing the range of cards being played. Wandering Archaic from Strixhaven being really good at messing with stacks. A Magda deck playing Mishra's Workshop out next to Dwarven Trader and Dwarven Armorer (1/1s for R) was a bit wacky.
The game flow of cEDH seemed to be a bit of resource accrual eventually into combo turns where someone would "go for it" with or without backup, then seeing if the rest of the table could stop them. The round time policy makes a lot of sense for this, since the stack/turn here can quickly eat up 10, 20+ mins. There's some posturing from non-active players about whether they have interaction, if they can get someone else to use their interaction, if they can negotiate a draw here by negating the active player, etc. This is the main bit of "table talk" I witnessed. It takes a a little bit, but these stacks/turns usually determine the outcome of the match.
- Player 1 turn 1 plays a Chrome Mox, imprinting a Phyrexian Metamorph under it. On player 2's turn 2, this is noticed by a judge. Chrome Mox reads "Imprint - When this artifact enters, you may exile a nonartifact, nonland card from your hand."
Ruling: handle as a GRV, backing up five turns is out of the question, leave it as is.
Commentary: I kept an eye out for repeats of this error the rest of the day, saw none. Chalk it up to being an interaction that only happens with colored artifacts (not many in cEDH) and player being a bit distracted by round 1 software snafus. - Player 3 casts The One Ring on their turn. Go around to player 1's turn, who controls a Malcolm Keen-Eyed Navigator (partner pirate commander with a pirate-damage-trigger) and a Kediss Emberclaw Familiar (partner commander with a trigger that duplicates commander combat damage).
P1 attacks P3, announces triggers. P2 points out that P3 has protection from everything, P1 argues that P3 never announced their Ring trigger.
The One Ring's trigger affects the game in non-visible ways. As long as its controller acknowledges it before it becomes relevant (ex. taking damage or allowing themselves to be targeted) they receive the trigger's benefits. For handling multiplayer, we generally treat other players as teammates - i.e. in this case they're allowed to point out the trigger.
So P3 gets their TOR protection, P1's attack goes through and does nothing. - P4 controls an Aetherflux Reservoir. On P1's turn, they attempt to cast something. P4 responds, gaining 1 life to 51 and activates Aetherflux Reservoir targeting P1.
Couple tricky things taking this call.
- What is happening in the game at the moment of the call?
- What is the players' problem or issue?
- Is this call being made to gain or create an opening/advantage somehow?
End result seemed to be that one player didn't think P4 gave an appropriate window for the life gain trigger, but no one had a response to it so :/ nothing changes - P2 controls Kefka Court Mage (Wizard w/ ETB everyone discards, controller draws cards for each type discarded), Harmonic Prodigy (doubles Shaman/Wizard triggers), and Displacer Kitten (on noncreature spell cast blink a nonland you control).
On P4's turn, P4 attempts to cast a spell and P2 responds. P2 blinks Kefka and correctly triggers+resolves Kefka twice. A few spells later, everyone but P2 is hellbent. P2 casts a couple more spells before their own turn, blinking Kefka again but only resolving the trigger once each time (rummaging, effectively).
Noticed this, it's difficult to argue that it's gaining any advantage to ignore the effect, P2 has around 9/10 cards in hand vs 0 in everyone else's hands, rummaging a few more times is going to be generally beneficial to the player. This would be GRV at comp REL since Harmonic Prodigy is a replacement effect but in the spirit of the event & regular REL I allow it to pass without warning and the game ends about a minute later.
Sunday Assignment: Standard 5k / Deck Checks
The event was staffed for significantly greater attendance. Blame Vivi Cauldron. 30% of SCG Orlando day 1 into 54% of day 2 into 75% of the Top 8? That's busted. Asking people if Vivi should be banned is a bit of a litmus test. Vivi is a perfectly balanced Standard card as is, it's the interaction with Agatha's Soul Cauldron that breaks the normal curve of mana production. Cauldron is the correct ban, those who say Vivi clearly haven't actually played the format.
If anyone asks me how to fix Standard? 1) Go back to two year rotation 2) Print pre-constructed decks that can actually onboard new players
Calls
- Cards involved: Cecil Dark Knight, Deep-Cavern Bat
- Situation: Cecil & Bat are attacking while AP is at 12. How does damage resolve - does Cecil flip?
- Ruling: Lifelink happens when damage happens, Cecil is a trigger. So AP goes to 13 then when Cecil trigger resolves they go to 11. AP does not get to flip Cecil.
