I continue to think about the various challenges with making Commander fun. Casual Commander sits at a junction of many different goals, some of which challenge each other.

Most of the time with games, when we do something, we do it with a single goal in mind. If we play chess or Catan, the goal is to win the game. That's true for a typical game of Magic, too; you play in an FNM or tournament, and your job is to beat the person sitting across the table from you. You may or may not have fun - the same is true for your opponent - but you both understand: winning is the point.

Commander, when not cEDH (I feel that's an important distinction), however, has many goals. Winning is often one. But community is one. Fun is one. Personality and a bit of bragging can be one (have you ever all looked at a cool version of a card someone got for their pet deck? Or wanted to show off the interaction you put together? That's what I'm talking about). And the problem is, if you sit at a table with one person who just wants to show off their blinged out deck, one person who showed up with an old precon because they wanted to hang out with their friends, one person who's been hypertuning their most oppressive deck, and one who's never played before, you have a mismatch of goals - and it's very likely the game will be fun for no one.

We've talked about this as a community for a long time. The "Social Contract." "Rule Zero." Now we have the Bracket system, which is still focused on winning, but at least it puts some guardrails in place to how people win. "Have a conversation about what you expect and what you want from the game," the content creators say. "If it doesn't line up with the others at that table, maybe it's time to find a new group of players."

Yeah, that's a lot easier said than done.

First of all, the conversations sometimes don't work. I sat down at a table with a guy I didn't know and initiated the Rule Zero conversation. He said he built janky budget builds with silly and fun interactions. He Stone Rained me on turn two and kept the other three of us completely out of the game until he combo'ed on turn five. I don't think he was lying - I think he had a completely different understanding of "janky" and "fun" than I did.

Beyond that, those discussions can be hard! Someone might be embarrassed because they're playing in a shop where people run whatever they want regardless of price and they don't want to (or can't) spend that much money. Perhaps you made your schedule so your one night off was perfectly aligned with Commander night at your LGS. You go down there and initiate these beginning conversations, and you discover no one is in line with what you're looking for (whatever that is - high powered bracket 3, maybe, or goofy Bracket 1 silliness). Now what? You just... hang out? Go home and sulk? Or do you play at a table where you know you aren't getting what you want, probably not have a great time, and wonder why you even bother?

Finally, "finding a new group" is so tone deaf it's practically offensive. Many communities don't have an LGS; your playgroup is your group of friends - from school or work, or just the pals you've made who happen to play. If there are a total of six people in your area who play Magic, either you play with them or you don't play. (Keep in mind, I'm not counting online, which has its own challenges. I don't play online, because I prefer the in-person interaction. I also don't want to exist in two ecosystems!) Even if your area does have a shop, there may not be a large Commander community. Perhaps it's overrun by cEDH players. Finding like-minded people in your area is, frankly, for most people, impossible. Not to mention the fact, Magic may not be the only factor in the group - if these people are your friends and you enjoy hanging out with them regardless of Commander, and you simply happen to be misaligned on what you want out of a game, you don't want to bail on your friends. But now you're stuck playing unhappily most of the time.

As I continue to wrestle with this in my own group with my own friends (a group of people I have no intention of abandoning), I've come to the conclusion that, flawed as it is, the only way to do this is to continue to have conversations about it. I have to spend time figuring out how to articulate what it is I am looking for out of a game of Commander (I'm not done doing this yet, but I know I like lower-powered games with haymakers rather than fast starts. I enjoy resets like board wipes as long as everyone is still in the game. I don't mind long turns for everyone because it means I can chat with my buddies, I really like interesting and fun interactions, and I much prefer it when winning happens either all at once or someone is able to create a board state to win in a few rounds so no one has to sit around waiting). I need to say that, clearly and plainly, being vulnerable with my friends. I need to be able to either ask them to create a deck or two which exists in this style and request that we play 1/X games in this way (where X is the number of us), or come up with some other suggestion - some other way of playing which will lend itself towards this. (I also need to invite my friends to do the same thing, and then accommodate their playstyle as well. Yes, it means every game won't be what I seek, but 1/X will and all of us will have the chance to get what we're looking for!)

This is why I'm so captivated by PreDH. Commander wasn't necessarily better back then, but it was different - and it generally captured what I look for out of a game of Commander more than it does now. High-powered wasn't as high-powered as it is now. Mana fixing wasn't as good, fewer cards affected just your opponents, and haymakers in the red zone were more hilarious than terrifying.

With that in mind, I thought it'd be fun to look at one of my favorite color pairings, , aka Orzhov. I love the tightly wound, reactionary style that's willing to pay with its own life and mess with the Graveyard. Who better to represent this than this Angel?

Despite being from the dark ages of Magic artwork (that slit is a little absurd), this is the kind of Creature I love to see. 3/3 Flying for five is underpowered by modern standards, but that's great for PreDH - a little slower, a little less broken, and a little more creativity required to make a working deck. Because her second ability lets us return her to our Hand easily and at Instant speed, she dodges removal well, and built-in evasion means she's a prime target to carry some Equipment.

However, she doesn't actually need that much. We're in the colors of board control, so let's slow the game down, keep it under control, and win slowly, with a slightly buffed Selenia and a lot of wild interactions. And since we can always respond to returning her by activating her ability again, we can effectively drain our life total to whatever level we'd like. Maybe we can use that somehow too.

Selenia, Dark Angel | PreDH | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Selenia, Dark Angel

• Creatures (7)
• 1 Children of Korlis
• 1 Dark Confidant
• 1 Magus of the Mirror
• 1 Netherborn Phalanx
• 1 Platinum Angel
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Weathered Wayfarer

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Sorin Markov

• Instants (13)
• 1 Angel's Grace
• 1 Beacon of Immortality
• 1 Dawn Charm
• 1 Imp's Mischief
• 1 Moonlight Bargain
• 1 Mortify
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Rebuff the Wicked
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Skeletal Scrying
• 1 Snuff Out
• 1 Sudden Spoiling
• 1 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (15)
• 1 Ambition's Cost
• 1 Ancient Craving
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Dregs of Sorrow
• 1 Hallowed Burial
• 1 Night's Whisper
• 1 Pain's Reward
• 1 Promise of Power
• 1 Reanimate
• 1 Reverse the Sands
• 1 Rout
• 1 Sign in Blood
• 1 Syphon Mind
• 1 Vindicate
• 1 Wrath of God

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Ghostly Prison
• 1 Greed
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1 Wound Reflection

• Artifacts (18)
• 1 Argentum Armor
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Charcoal Diamond
• 1 Eternity Vessel
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Fireshrieker
• 1 Loxodon Warhammer
• 1 Marble Diamond
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Phyrexian Processor
• 1 Quietus Spike
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Sword of Vengeance
• 1 Tainted Sigil
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (40)
• 12 Plains
• 14 Swamp
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Caves of Koilos
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Fetid Heath
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Kor Haven
• 1 Leechridden Swamp
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Orzhov Basilica
• 1 Orzhova, the Church of Deals
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Secluded Steppe
• 1 Tainted Field
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse

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Here's how this works. Our first goal is to get Selenia on the Battlefield, suit her up with an Equipment or two, and send her at our opponents to win with Commander damage. However, we have a bunch of ways to manipulate life totals, so it's very possible we'll end up doing something really silly and winning in a crazy combination of cards. In one play-test game, I doubled my life total with Beacon of Immortality to 62, then played Eternity Vessel the next turn set to 61 (I had Phyrexian Arena out, so I was losing one per turn to that). I attacked with a suited Selenia who at that point had Lifelink and jumped to 73 life. The next turn, I played Phyrexian Processor and paid 71 life, setting myself to 1, then used Reverse the Sands to exchange with someone and set them to 1, going to 28. I activated Sorin Markov's +2 ability to kill my opponent, then played a Land and set myself back to 61. This happened on turns 12 - 14!

Our 40 Lands mostly fix, and Godless Shrine is cheap enough I don't feel bad about running it here. Orzhova, the Church of Deals is an expensive two-life swing but we want to be able to manipulate life totals, and if we set someone to 1, this can bring them to a sticky end. Reliquary Tower ended up being my most common search with Weathered Wayfarer.

We've got some mana rocks too; getting to Selenia a turn early is a nice boost, and there were no turns where I felt like I had too much mana. I would love a Sword of the Animist here, but alas, not allowed. Wayfarer's Bauble is a fine turn one play, though.

Draw is mostly Sign in Bloods and Ancient Cravings. I like Dark Confidant here; we don't mind spending the life and we'll often have ways to regain it, and it's kind of a baller play, especially if you get an old beaten up one and talk about your Modern PTQ from 2007 or something (especially funny if you're like 13). I'm a big fan of Dregs of Sorrow; it's an expensive up-front cost, but drawing 5 and killing 5 Creatures for 10 mana is absolutely worth it. Pain's Reward should be a fun little mini game, Promise of Power basically refills our Hand, and never sleep on Syphon Mind. Draw three for 4 mana, plus it slows our opponents down!

Selenia wearing any Equipment is a likely decent threat, but we do get some particularly good ones. Argentum Armor and Batterskull should end games in just a couple of swings, and Quietus Spike is another way to get people to get to a single-digit life. Sword of Fire and Ice is here mostly because it draws for us, but 2 damage can be quite relevant for us.

We have a number of point removal spells - Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares have been around a while - and a few fun old-school ones like Sudden Spoiling, which can be quite the surprise to people when deployed carefully. Angel's Grace and Dawn's Charm also play in an unfamiliar space for many modern players, and Children of Korlis should join with Ghostly Prison as a reason to not bother attacking us, especially if we have Phyrexian Reclamation out, making the Children repeatable. Imp's Mischief and Rebuff the Wicked are actual counter spells in our colors and will stun a lot of people. A few Wrath effects, including Wrath of God, round out the removal package. I particularly like Rout - the Instant-speed capability was awesome back then.

And finally, we have all these ways to mess with life totals. We can use something like Magus of the Mirror, return Selenia a bunch of times and lower our total to 1 or 2, then switch someone down to that while we take whichever life total we want. Reverse the Sands can be quite powerful. Sorin Markov, of course, will lower someone to 10 right away. Wound Reflection is pretty solid here, though remember if you switch with someone they didn't lose any life, so they won't lose that again.

The only other card I want to mention is that Phyrexian Processor. I haven't seen this card played in years, but my goodness it's hilarious. Spitting out 43/43s or whatever is really fun, and the fact they can be blocked by a Goblin Token makes them much less threatening (though stick a Loxodon Warhammer on one and it becomes a much bigger problem). The trick is using it strategically - don't just drop it at the first opportunity. Wait until you can manipulate it with a life-total-swap and really make someone's day.

This deck doesn't Wrath every turn. It can't kill everything. But it can keep itself alive and should stretch a game into a decent length. If it wins, it's going to win with a couple of big plays or will take out one player then die on the crackback from everyone else. It also takes several turns to really set up, so no one should feel like it's too much. Just exactly the kind of game I'm looking for - long, interactive, and full of fun interactions.

Thanks for reading.