By: Jay D.

Hello, I'm new here. My name is Jay, and I love to play Commander (a.k.a. EDH). If you don't know what Commander/EDH is, you can find more about it here. My passion for this format extends far enough to even write about it. Now that's saying something when you consider how lazy I am when it comes to writing papers for class. If only I could conjure up this sort of motivation for other things, but more on my life later.

Commander up until last week was known to all as Elder Dragon Highlander. Wizards, with their infinite wisdom, joined forces with the creators of EDH to market a new product that will be available this upcoming summer. With this team up came the name change. I know that many people disagree and are angered by this change, but I feel this is something that one shouldn't get too worked up over. It doesn't matter what you call it, the format is the same. Eventually, the two names will be interchangeable, much like Type 2 and Standard. Anyways, Wizards is bringing us Commander Decks with new cards and new Generals! I, for one, am very excited for the new cards.

These Commander decks are part of Wizards' Summer of Multiplayer. Last summer, we saw Archenemy, and in the summer of 2009, we saw Planechase. I loved how these products were done and this makes me confident that they will not disappoint us when they release the Commander decks in summer 2011.

So, I started playing Magic way back during Onslaught block. My best friend had just been given a stack of cards from one of his cousins and showed them to me. Both of us didn't know what they did or how the game was played. After we both did some research, we bought the 7th Edition Core set CD that taught you the basics of Magic. After that, we bought some boosters and preconstructed decks from Wal-Mart. Note: the first rare I ever pulled from a booster pack was Akroma, Angel of Wrath.

We played every day after school and sometimes during study-halls. It was casual Magic in every sense of the word, wacky decks and good times. Over time, we managed to get quite a few of our other friends involved. We had quite the play group-- multiplayer games every day and we picked up new formats like Frontier Magic and Emperor.

Eventually, we found people that wanted to take their game to the next level. By this, I mean that they learned about FNM and wanted to participate. They built decks that were quicker and meaner. As a reaction to this, the rest of our play group started building more competitive decks to match the power of theirs. Not too long after that, all of us were going to FNM weekly. This continued until we graduated from high school in 2006.

During the summer after graduation, I came to the conclusion that I would probably not have anyone to play Magic with at college. So, with thinking that my Magic playing days were coming to an end, I started selling off my cards piece by piece. I did keep a few decks and a few of my favorite cards because I might play a few games with my friends when I came home for visits and such. Magic was going to be a thing of my past.

Man, was I wrong. I started at Cornell College and the first evening I see a couple people in the dorm lounge slinging the spells. As it turned out, of the 32 people on my floor, 17 played magic. I know right, what are the odds? In addition to that, I found out that Cornell had a Chess and Games Club. So, I met even more players like Bill Stark and the up-and-coming pro Raine Lourie. I had only brought two decks with me to school, but when I made my first trip back home, I made sure that I brought all my Magic cards back with me. I was back in the game and was playing more Magic than ever before. I even created an entire custom block, but more on that another time.

Fast forward to the spring semester of my junior year, a friend teaches my roommate and I a new format. That format was EDH. During this time period, my roommate and I had become increasingly interested in competitive standard. We went to FNM's and even a couple GP's and PTQ's. Our first EDH decks were horrible. Pretty much 100 card singleton standard. Mind you, we didn't have the cards for EDH, so getting into this format took some time and effort. Eventually, we got the cards we needed and were off.

The first General/Commander that I ever used was Rith, the Awakener. The deck was tokens galore, with as many creature boosting effects that I could pack into the deck. It had a couple combos, but nothing my opponent had to worry about. The deck was decent, but it was easy to upset my battlefield. I tried a few different deck types using Rith as my general, but nothing seemed to work for me. So, I set out on a mission to find another general.

Remember, this was spring of 2009 with summer fast approaching. Alara Reborn was on the horizon and spoilers had just started. It wasn't long before I found my new general, Uril, the Miststalker. For a combo player like me, Uril was like a wet dream. He literally screamed, "BUILD AROUND ME!!!" So, I did. There are so many great auras in that color shard. Along with mana ramp and tutoring effects, my Uril deck was a beast. It could kill my opponent with general damage with one hit. It wasn't long before everyone was gunning for me each game.

As time progressed, I became tired of playing the same deck over and over. I eventually went on to build 5 other EDH decks, one for each color. The generals were Akroma, Azami, Marrow-Gnawer, Ib Halfheart, and Seton. Each had a different style of play and was loads of fun.

Eventually, we stepped up our game a bit and started going to the local game store's EDH game days. These game days were comprised of Single Elimination 1-on-1 tournaments, 10+ person Grand Melee, and Free-for-All EDH games. During our first outing of this type, we were blown away at what decks were out there and how powerful they were. My first loss was in a 10 person Grand Melee event. I was killed by a Door to Nothingness! How awesome is that! That player ended up combo-ing off and killing everyone else at the table. Only in EDH! After our excursion to the game day, I wanted to build a control deck that could combo off. I found Hokori, Dust Drinker and my life changed forever...

Until next time, keep walking the planes.