Was it Inevitable that WotC Would Eventually Control EDH/Commander?
General forum
Posted on Nov. 16, 2024, 9:20 a.m. by DemonDragonJ
I just read this article, here, and I feel very sad, about it, since it tells the story of how the EDH/commander format had problems even before hostile reactions from the community forced the rules committee to give control of the format to WotC, so I cannot help but wonder if this was inevitable, if WotC would eventually have control of that format, since that format being independent of WOtC was one of the traits that made it so wonderful. I do not wish to promote any conspiracy theories, but I wonder if that was secretly an effort by WotC to take control of the format, because it certainly seems to be awfully convenient that the rules committee would give control of the format to WotC after receiving threats of violence.
What does everyone else say about this? Was this scenario inevitable (i.e., if it had not been this time, would there have eventually been another incident that caused the rules committee to give control of the format to WotC), and was it secretly an attempt by WotC to take control of the format, or was it merely a very unfortunate coincidence?
FormOverFunction says... #3
I felt like they already had (effectively) total control back when they started “Commander.” The EDH committee always struck me as a stand-in for local (probably less-organized) friend groups who would police un-fun play. The presence or absence of the committee has had zero direct effect on me, as I don’t generally play with cEDH’ers and don’t build decks that upset people. I think there is a parallel that can be drawn between this and D&D, in that the official fixes put in a new edition are generally already solved and moved on from in functional playgroups. Making it “official” gives players an emergency escape hatch; someone ELSE to point to when they encounter problems. I’ve been lucky enough to avoid needing anything like that. So, in short, I think that yes, it was inevitable… but only because they’ve always been the ones making the cards.
November 16, 2024 1:55 p.m.
RiotRunner789 says... #4
The difference, I felt, between WOTC and the committee was already minimal. They had WOTC employees on the committee and directly worked with, influenced, and talked with the committee, mostly behind closed doors.
WOTC gaining full control, while I believe is a net negative, doesn't change much from how it already was. At most, it accelerated some of their plans.
November 16, 2024 3:33 p.m.
I do not believe WOTC had any say in handover. Even if they did, the new judge committee maintains much of the same the same hands off, keep playing casual, and be social component of the old committee. And unless they're directly on the drawing board, I don't think it will change much.
Put a different way, WOTC has no intention of ever having commander ever be truly competitive, as that would alienate a significant portion of their card design and base. The same staples see so much competitive play that making commander competitive would mean they would need to reprint those or artificially power creep the format like it did with Modern Horizons.
I'm cautious with predictions. Mystery Booster 2 reprinted so many commander cards. Perhaps they could hit egregious cards in cEDH. Thassa's Oracle and Demonic Consultation. But those were just reprinted. Unfortunate timing with the committee adjustment. Drannith Magistrate,Rograkh, The One Ring, and Rhystic Study have been much complained of cards. Ikoria power crept the game, and it could happen again.
It's in all a very unfortunate accident due in large part to having such a large base of players. But I don't foresee the committee changing the game or the format much.
November 16, 2024 4:13 p.m.
To be fair, I think wotc has had pretty good control of commander ever since they started printing straight to commander cards. The amount of things the RC banned or flagged never had anywhere near the impact of wotc introducing cards that were never balanced for play in standard. I mean, there are probably more Doctor Who Doctors than there are commanders banned under the RC. I didn't check the number, but really, maybe?
I guess I just think that the people that printed Jeweled Lotus have way more influence over the commander meta than the people who banned it.
November 16, 2024 5:27 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #7
lukecwolf, I very dearly would like to see Drannith Magistrate banned in EDH, and possibly Thassa's Oracle, as well, but what is wrong with Rograkh? Is he too powerful for 0 mana?
November 16, 2024 6:55 p.m.
AFAIK some standout issues with Roger are that he's guaranteed sac fodder, he's a free Commander for Deflecting Swat and Fierce Guardianship, and he makes Mox Amber wildly more reliable. It also helps that he's in Red, a very fast colour ramp-wise (lots of Rituals).
November 16, 2024 7:23 p.m.
Yeah Rograkh is also basically the number 1 deck in the format. The two ones that abuse it to hell are the ones that use cast for free with communander / sacrifice creature as cost (often paired with silas wrenn foe colors) and ardenn, equipping for free. Stastically the former also has highest chance of winning by t2-3.
Rograkh as commander should get banned if judged sheerly from win percentage metric. It's common practice in most card games,WOTC has promised to take a harder stance recently. That metric may not translate perfectly to commander but it's a step. Alt commander Formats like conquest already banned it.
legendofa says... #2
I strongly believe WotC did not, in any way, engineer the handover.
I do think that they had a list of priorities in the event of them receiving control, and that they're working through that list right now, but they were content to leave the status quo as it was and focus on other things.
What does "WotC was secretly behind this" actually mean? What would WotC do to bring this around? Encourage people to directly and graphically threaten their employees' friends and associates? Deliberately sabotage the reprint value of some of their most sought-after cards? Alienate a huge chunk of their customer base? Sure, some corporations have done more for less, and there's a solid dozen reasons to legitimately dislike WotC/Hasbro's policies and practices, but I don't see this happening.
Eventually, at some distant point, I think there was potential for a peaceful and mutually agreed handover, occuring on the RC's terms and probably with similar results to what we are seeing now. So I don't think the Rules Committee was going to last forever, but the way it ended was the worst possible way.
November 16, 2024 1:44 p.m.