If you could make one change in Commander...

[WizardMN]

Out there idea: What about if you deal X (30 or 40?)damage total to the table with your commander you win the game. Then you can track it yourself and it puts it closer to viewed like combo where you're the enemy of the table. If you try to Hatred someone out of the game everyone wants to stop it.

I have no idea if I would even like that but it seems like a more interesting aggro dynamic potentially.

That is interesting to say the least. It does suggest that a game where Voltron is at least one of the decks means it might be more 1v3 than desired. And the idea that players now have a vested interest in not letting someone else get hit (because the whole table loses) actually seems like a negative. The Voltron player can go after Player 1 for the first couple turns, player 2 for the next turn, and player 3 for a turn and everyone loses. So, getting rid of player 3's infinite combo (for example) still means we lose because they are wide open for the last bit of commander damage.

This is obviously a simplistic take on it of course.

I like the idea on the surface but I think the game play turns frustrating where too many catch-22's exist with it since we might have to do more to save an opponent to save ourselves. And, on the selfish side, I would rather let an opponent lose currently if it means I survive. I don't really want to turn more games into Archenemy than necessary.

[pokken]

Yeah, I think that mostly solves for the tracking concern but does have a tendency to create archenemy games, and of course continues with invalidating certain approaches to the game.

I kind of like it from a cuteness perspective in that it's something like, trying to get your commander to ignite their spark or something instead of the current which just doesn't really make any sense. Although that of course doesn't work with walker commanders. Though I really dislike those too lol

[RxPhantom]

I don't want commander damage to go anywhere, and if I'm running a deck that can win with it, I track it on pen and paper and it's not that tough. It's also pretty satisfying to get an out of nowhere win with Uncaged Fury.

[ZenN]

Out there idea: What about if you deal X (30 or 40?)damage total to the table with your commander you win the game. Then you can track it yourself and it puts it closer to viewed like combo where you're the enemy of the table. If you try to Hatred someone out of the game everyone wants to stop it.

I have no idea if I would even like that but it seems like a more interesting aggro dynamic potentially.

I'll be honest, that sounds pretty miserable. That leads to situations where that player just always goes after the weakest person at the table, but instead of that only killing the weakest person it's killing everyone. I don't want to lose because one of my opponents didn't play a blocker or something.

[Wallycaine]

Out there idea: What about if you deal X (30 or 40?)damage total to the table with your commander you win the game. Then you can track it yourself and it puts it closer to viewed like combo where you're the enemy of the table. If you try to Hatred someone out of the game everyone wants to stop it.

I have no idea if I would even like that but it seems like a more interesting aggro dynamic potentially.

I'll be honest, that sounds pretty miserable. That leads to situations where that player just always goes after the weakest person at the table, but instead of that only killing the weakest person it's killing everyone. I don't want to lose because one of my opponents didn't play a blocker or something.

Yeah, that seems significantly worse than current commander damage to me. It honestly doesn't even cut down on bookkeeping that much, since you still have to theoretically keep track of it for every commander. It also adds an extra toxic element to the whole "can I scoop to deny my opponent triggers" question that pops up from time to time, as now there's a huge incentive to scoop rather than let yourself get hit for the final bit of commander damage, lest you screw everyone else over.

[Sheldon]

Just in case folks haven't heard us repeat this many times recently, commander damage isn't going anywhere.

[pokken]

Just in case folks haven't heard us repeat this many times recently, commander damage isn't going anywhere.

Should we interpret that as the rule won't change at all or that some variant will stick around?

[Wallycaine]

Just in case folks haven't heard us repeat this many times recently, commander damage isn't going anywhere.

To be clear, this was not made with the expectation of anything changing. But the topic is "what would we change", and for me, that's Commander Damage. It may serve some purpose, but in my view, that purpose is not sufficient to counterbalance the tedious extra tracking and other drawbacks. That said, I know that changing it is unlikely to happen anytime soon, or at all.

[Zealcat]

I don't have a dedicated Uril-style voltron deck that goes all in on commander damage, but half my decks use commander damage as a kill condition quite often. Closing that avenue off would weaken all 3 decks. I also find commander damage is a good tool to push all in combo decks out of the game quickly. Removing it would just make aggro strategies even weaker.

[cryogen]

Just in case folks haven't heard us repeat this many times recently, commander damage isn't going anywhere.

Has there been any further discussion on combined Commander damage since the Command Zone summit last year?

[Vertain]

Just in case folks haven't heard us repeat this many times recently, commander damage isn't going anywhere.

Should we interpret that as the rule won't change at all or that some variant will stick around?

I remember this being said about Painter's Servant as well, so I'll take that with a grain of salt.

[CrazyPierre]

I'd honestly go with lowering the starting life total to 30, or 25, but 25 might be way, way too low.
At 30, you would be at 25-24 after a few fetches/shockland entries, which is close enough to 20 that you would actually need to play with more spot removal, Wrath effect instead of just fishing for the combo. It might make cards like Necro a little more reasonable as well, and tweak mana-bases so that City of Brass/Tarnished Citadel etc. might have more of an opportunity cost.