That was the original intent of the Primer project actually.
At it's heart, the idea of making primers was to encourage a series of starting points for people who were interested in building a certain Commander or style. It was there to highlight exceptional resources, and exceptional people who made them. The goal was to be able to rationally explain what the deck's basic goals and functions were.
As time went on though, the Primer needs somewhat changed (as all things do). Initially, I would even say that it wasn't necessary to explain each and every card. Everyone knows what
Wood Elves are for, you don't need a 3 paragraph text explaining ramp. However, certain cards DO need to be explained, and when lists would get submitted that were missing crucial information, the way that requirement was written needed to change to be able to catch that - that leaves the bar higher than it technically needs to be in a lot of cases, but it needs to be there to catch a still significant number of decks that do need it there. This means that some have to overcommit a bit, but it's usually better to get a bit of extra detail, than miss a crucial piece. Of course, you don't want to set it TOO high either, otherwise you're filling in a bunch of padding and fluff, and diluting from the actual important pieces.
Likewise with the recorded changelog. I personally never really cared for it, never really used it when reading someone else's primer, and it's the one part of my primers that I hated having to record. But different people find value in different things, and some people really like and utilize it. I want to say that there were 4 or 5 of us voting as to whether that part needed to be required, and I was the only dissenting voice on that one, so I accepted that I was wrong on that issue, and that it had a higher value than I thought.
Primers are also a lot fancier than they used to be. Obviously, making something look nice adds an extra level of professionalism. Having images helps highlight key cards, gives strength to certain points you make, and helps break up the text and keep the reader interested. I started the trend by also adding in the section links when I discovered that MTGS could make use of anchor tags. Basic organization and functionality was expected for Primers, but I feel that now some people are hesitant to make Primers because they are intimidated by how complex some of them are, or how much coding they think they'll need to do, when really it's the content and explanation that's always been the most important thing. The visuals are there to help and aid the content, not be the centerpiece itself.
toctheyounger wrote: ↑1 year ago
lyonhaert wrote: ↑1 year ago
But I figure I mostly need to cover my version of the deck and a handful of alternate cards rather than trying to cover other possible approaches to Chainer too much, since I can just link to other threads.
Yes. This is the approach I took to Varina too. There's tons of options around, all you need to do is cover your build, and if you want to, cover off some alternate options for differing builds in brief. You're definitely not required to be encyclopedic.
Much this. The requirement for showing other options was simply to explain how your Commander/Deck fit in against similar options. What made you choose this Commander instead of another, or Since you built this Commander, how did that influence your building, compared to similar options? etc. It initially was only a small paragraph/section requirement to lay a bit of the groundwork/backdrop. Sometimes people intentionally pick a sub-par Commander. This section was there so if someone was reading your thread, you'd be able to say "If you want to play this style, technically you should probably run XXXX, but I built YYYY instead, because I think YYYY has more flavor. It changed how I approached this deck, because of ZZZZ... so you'll want to keep that in mind."
Obviously, If you'd actually gone through several Commanders, it could get significantly larger. When I wrote my Chainer write up, that deck had originated during Kokusho testing, and initially had 3 interchangeable Commanders:
Chainer, Dementia Master,
Balthor the Defiled, and
Kokusho, the Evening Star. I also occasionally ran other creatures in the Command Zone, including Griselbrand, during his brief stint in Commander (which led to one of the most hilariously bad games for me).
Again, this section - like all sections in the Primer format - changed and expanded over time, shifting as the needs and goals of Primers have shifted. The needs and expectations of Primers is vastly different from when it first started, but that's only natural, since what people expect FROM primers has changed since then as well.
Absolutely fascinating how it has evolved.
"
I hope so, he's a classic commander. 
