Hello friends. This week I've opened the mailbag up once again! Let's get right to it.

I've talked about this before but it bears repeating, given the sad reality that COVID isn't going away anytime soon and webcam Commander is likely to be our primary way of playing together for the foreseeable future.

First let's clarify one thing - neither I nor the Rules Committee nor anyone else is espousing a "webcam banlist". So please, please, please do not take what I say here as anything resembling the law.

Broadly speaking, problematic cards for webcam Commander fall into these categories, with the biggest problems first:

• Mindslaver effects, including Emrakul, the Promised End
• Playing cards from opponents' decks, including Etali, Primal Storm et al
• Mass permanent theft, including Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools
• Looking at opponents' hands without revealing the whole hand, including Gitaxian Probe (but not Thoughtseize)
• Single-target permanent theft, including Control Magic and related effects

It should be noted that in the case of stealing permanents and casting cards from opponents' decks, there are novel ways of getting around that problem. I can't speak highly enough of InfiniTokens. In addition to making high-quality products, the team behind InfiniTokens have rapidly become pillars of the Commander community and I am happy to support them in any way I can.

Long story short - there are lots of cards that can create logistical headaches in webcam Commander. Make these a part of your Rule 0 discussion before playing a game.

Short answer - no.

Long answer - first, I'll repeat my belief that "casual" has unfortunately become a loaded word that is sometimes used almost as an insult to players who prefer to play Commander for the social experience with a low premium on winning. I prefer "social" in this context.

As for the cards you mentioned, I don't see any reason to believe they run counter - no pun intended - to the social aspect of Commander. I'm firmly on record that Sol Ring, Mana Crypt and other "fast mana" cards shouldn't even be in the discussion for bans. Does fast mana enable too-quick combos? Sure, sometimes it does. But Commander games are long. Often they are too long. Speeding up the game - to a point - is good. I've seen no evidence, anecdotal or otherwise, to make me believe that a player or players who open with fast mana sources are overwhelmingly more likely to win than those who don't. We all know that some decks don't really need Mana Crypt to get moving quickly (I'm looking at you, Literally Any Deck With Green In It). And some decks don't want mana rocks at all.

In the case of Mana Drain, I don't think we're really talking about that card, but rather counter spells writ large. This is a thornier issue because some players - perhaps a lot of players - don't enjoy having their spells countered. I get that. It doesn't bother me, but it can be bothersome for the people you're playing with. As with the webcam-unfriendly cards we discussed above, if you're planning to play a deck loaded with counter spells, it's worth mentioning in your pregame Rule 0 discussion.

Well, we have one!

...but it's not great.

Having the effect stapled to a creature and requiring that creature to be tapped makes it both inefficient and a massive target for removal. Unless you're able to equip something like Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots on it and you have the mana to activate its ability immediately thereafter, Magus of the Balance isn't going to get it done.

I will say that I'm eager for some more innovative board wipes in mono-White. Slash the Ranks is an intriguing new one in Commander Legends given that it leaves commanders alone, but most White board wipes are "destroy everything" or "exile everything" - both effective but very familiar by now - and I'd love to see Wizards take some bigger, more original swings in the future.

This is tough because I play Commander with the lowest of stakes. I'm there to have a good time. So, I'm all about table talk. I'm all about crafting inside jokes and calling back to previous good memories. For a lot of players those things are annoying; for me, they're what I seek.

So, for this one I'm going to go with something of which I have been guilty many, many times myself - not being present for the game. We're all addicted to our phones. It's virtually impossible to resist picking them up every minute or two. I'm not saying you should lock your phone in a safe while you play Commander, but it does become problematic when people miss entire turns or significant sequences because they're distracted by Twitter or Facebook or whatever.

Distractions happen. We're human. We just all, myself included, need to be more mindful of respecting each other's time and having our heads in the game until the game is over.

Let's start with an old one:

I had a deck that paired Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa with Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder. It was stocked with little creatures and token generators, and I had to resist every Commander instinct in me and avoid all anthems, +1/+1 counters, and other effects that would make my creatures bigger. By ensuring all my creatures remain small, they were virtually unblockable. This little-known card, however, made the caveat on Sidar much less relevant:

With this and Sidar in play, your opponents can only block with creatures that have reach. It makes it much, much easier for creatures - whether they fly or not - to get through.

To switch things up, let's swap Bruse out of the other partner slot and replace him with a new Commander Legends card:

This gives us access to Red - and legions of Goblins, Elementals and other small but effective creatures - and pings all of our opponents as a nice bonus. And if you stock the deck with flying creatures, Bower Passage essentially turns flying into horsemanship. Just hope you don't run into a Reach tribal deck!

To answer the second question first - I have no idea. I think the most widely accepted "house rule" is that players can only concede at sorcery speed, and I'd imagine that would be the most logical way to approach it in a competitive setting.

To the larger question - that's how I tend to handle concessions across the board. For sure this is only my perspective and this should be part of the Rule 0 discussion, but in my opinion, scooping in the middle of another player's turn feels cheap and, if it's laced heavily with salt, disrespectful to the rest of the table. If you decide at any point that you're going to concede, there's likely no good reason not to wait until your turn comes around.

Unless, that is, you're scooping because one player is in the middle of a never-ending turn that doesn't appear to be getting them any closer to winning the game, something I and others often refer to as "playing with their food". In that circumstance, if the rest of the table agrees to all concede together in order to either end the session or start a new game, then go to town.

I added an asterisk there because, obviously, basic lands don't make tokens in and of themselves.

But let's just see how it would look, shall we?

Akim, the Soaring Wind | Commander | Dave Kosin

• Commander (1)
• 1 Akim, the Soaring Wind

• Creatures (22)
• 1 Blade Splicer
• 1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
• 1 Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer
• 1 Chasm Skulker
• 1 Darien, King of Kjeldor
• 1 Dockside Extortionist
• 1 Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1 Emeria Angel
• 1 Emrakul's Hatcher
• 1 Feldon of the Third Path
• 1 God-Eternal Oketra
• 1 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
• 1 Kemba, Kha Regent
• 1 Leonin Warleader
• 1 Master Splicer
• 1 Myr Battlesphere
• 1 Nesting Dragon
• 1 Reef Worm
• 1 Sensor Splicer
• 1 The Locust God
• 1 Wing Splicer
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
• 1 Ajani, Strength of the Pride
• 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
• 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

• Instants (7)
• 1 Angelic Favor
• 1 Banish into Fable
• 1 Cackling Counterpart
• 1 Call the Coppercoats
• 1 Entrapment Maneuver
• 1 Spell Swindle
• 1 Sublime Epiphany

• Sorceries (11)
• 1 Alliance of Arms
• 1 Allied Reinforcements
• 1 Brass's Bounty
• 1 Clone Legion
• 1 Decree of Justice
• 1 Empty the Warrens
• 1 Forbidden Friendship
• 1 Fractured Identity
• 1 Heroic Reinforcements
• 1 Phyrexian Rebirth
• 1 Rite of Replication

• Artifacts (4)
• 1 Dowsing Dagger
• 1 Genesis Chamber
• 1 Helm of the Host
• 1 Oketra's Monument

• Lands (36)
• 13 Plains
• 6 Island
• 9 Mountain
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Cradle of the Accursed
• 1 Dark Depths
• 1 Dwarven Mine
• 1 Field of the Dead
• 1 Foundry of the Consuls
• 1 Kher Keep
• 1 Springjack Pasture

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Welp, that sure is a deck where every card* makes a token! I can't promise it's any good, since our only sources of ramp are the smattering of cards that make treasure tokens. But it would be fun to give it a whirl! Let me know if you do.

Dave is a Commander player currently residing in Reno, NV. When he's not badly misplaying his decks, he works as a personal trainer. You can bother him on Twitter and check out his Twitch channel.