Post
by TempusFugit » 4 years ago
Hello [mention]Sheldon[/mention],
First of all, allow me to say your efforts of reaching out to to players, regardless of whether they identify themselves as cEDH or EDH players following the feedback/backlash/discussion surrounding the latest ban and all that is very much appreciated. Thank you for that (even though I disagree about %65 percent of what you say about commander)
Various people said all needed to be said above but let me provide a summary.
Meta is not completely compromised of flash-hulk decks, but it is almost universally accepted that Flash-Hulk it is the fastest, strongest and least interactible deck. This was true even before the PE ban. PE ban merely made Flash-Hulk decks even more ubiquitous.
PE ban mostly hurt control decks that forced Flash-Hulk players to slow down, which made Flash-Hulk even stronger as the decks that could keep them in check lost such a wincon/utility/value engine, while also killing aferomentioned decks like Sissay and Arcnum, decreasing format diversity.
People are pushing for a Flash ban, because Hulk itself, when put into a reanimator shell, or with some other outlet is considered to be a) slower b) more interactible. Considering Flash is rarely played in non cEDH commander metas, it is considered a much "safer" ban, if a thing such as "safe" ban exists.
Tangentially related:
[mention]Sheldon[/mention], people, and by people I mean cEDH community and EDH players that prefer focused/less durdly approaches but not cEDH, in my opinion, are not mad at the PE ban itself.
They are mad at your attitude, or perhaps I should say the way you argue, which makes many, myself included, feel excluded. Even worse, it makes us feel our way of playing is something to be ashamed of. Pubstomping is something to be ashamed of, on that we agree, playing competitively however, isn't, and as the face of the RC you are responsible for not making feel ourselves ashamed, or having the "wrong kind" of fun.
They are mad because some accusations, such as massive Paradox Engine sellouts/Painter Servant buyouts are still unanswered, giving rise to the speculation and rumours of insider trading. This makes people question whether RC and CAG, or at least some portion of them are using their position for monetary gain. This I believe is a reason of concern even for the most casual EDH players. As Josh from CZ mentioned, whenever you ban/unban a card, particularly a card of significant value, the economic impact of it is in millions, perhaps in tens of millions range. At this point, a casual format EDH might be, as its curators you no longer have the luxury of banning/unbanning cards without transparency, and without answering such questions.
They are mad at the lack of transparency of RC and CAG. I think if it wasn't for the Command Zone video with RC/CAG members, backlash from the EDH players of all kinds would be much harsher. The lack of transparency is directly related to people's perception of ban/unban decisions being arbitrary, and since you are the face of the RC, people, me included, have a tendency of feeling having to show begrudging obedience to your seemingly arbitrary decisions.
They are mad because your explanations regarding bans and philosophy document is often very vague and subjective which puts competitively minded people at an odd position. You say that banlist does not cater to the competitive environment, and given your philosophy document, it is an internally consistent argument. However, cEDH players who play for prizes in their LGS, and GPs and Magic Fests, do have to adhere to your banlist. As such, it is not entirely unfounded to argue that you (and by extension RC and CAG) have some responsibility towards them.
They are mad because PE is a problem that could be solved by rule 0. If players are taking too much time to play with PE on board, individuals kitchen tables can put a rule, you have to win other 5 minutes or less, or lets not play with PE. Rule 0 allows people to fix the problem of PE without hurting the competitively minded people and its meta by banning it.
They are mad because sometimes your explanations are insufficient. PE does not translate into a direct win, even in cEDH, in tuned decks. I doubt it can create "wins out of nowhere" in suboptimal decks. It requires an already advanced boardstate, a serious commitment to the board in the forms of dorks and rocks, which are vulnerable to various kinds of interactions - kinds of interaction that are often played even in casual pods. This list can be enumerated further, and the fact that it can be very easily enumerated further makes people question whether you guys actually thought that deeply on the PE ban, which does connect into my argument regarding transparency.
Personally, I play Tasigur, one of the control decks that was hurt the most by the PE ban. Post PE ban, Tasigur decks have already diversified into 3 main variants. Those that are all-ining to the scepter-reversal combo, those that are leaning towards freed from the real/tender combos, those that are focusing on reanimation/neoform/eldritch evolution lines. Even those that play Tasigur are not, based on discord server I might say, mad because you banned PE, because believe it or not, except a particularly vocal and toxic part of the cEDH community, we can understand and relate to why PE might create problems in more casual setting, and although we disagree with them, we can live with it.
Overall, I believe the way you reached out to community is a step in the right direction, and again, I would like to thank you for that. Sorry if my tangentially related rant ran a bit too long, but I hope it was the kind of constructive criticism you were looking for.
On a final note, my greatest issue (judging from some of your tweets and facebook posts) is that you seem to perceive all cEDH community to be consisting of its most vocal and possibly toxic members when it is not. But given that you have been threatened by a particularly angry person (likely one of those kind of people) very recently, I can't say I blame you for that.
MorienneMontenegro from cEDH subreddit/Manfred from Tasigur cEDH discord signing out.