New Format for Commander Players
The Kitchen Table forum
Posted on Oct. 5, 2016, 8 a.m. by The_Final_Interviewer
Hi everyone. A few of my friends and I have been working on a new format and wanted to share it with you, we call it Allied Forces. This format is pretty much the same as Commander or EDH except instead of only getting to play with one commander you can use two. Have you ever found a really cool commander with a great ability such as Thromok the Insatiable, but his colours don't exactly accommodate for the white token generation you know he really deserves? Well now you can feed him as many white weenies as you want by playing this hit new format.
Allied Forces follows pretty much the same rules and ban lists as Commander/EDH but with some additional rules:
1: You must have two commanders
2: Your two commanders can make up any colour combination however they must have the same amount of colours in their identity and you can not have two commanders with the exact same colours. If you just wanna play two Temur guys or two mono black dudes then go play normie commander! There is an acception to this rule for WUBRG commanders as they can only be paired with other WUBRG commanders, also colourless commanders will be counted as mono-coloured commanders. This is so you can't just slap Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger with any other commander and call it an Allied Forces deck.
3: Instead of 100 card singleton including the commander it is 120 card singleton including your two commanders
4: Instead of 40 life you start off with 50, instead of 10 poison counters to kill you need 20 and commander damage has been brought up from 21 damage to 31 damage
5: Instead of having to pay 2 extra mana for each time you bring your commander back from the command zone, you only have to pay 1. These command zone costs don't apply to both commanders if only one has died. For example if I have both of my commanders in the command zone but one of them has died twice and the other one has not even been out yet, then the first one would cost 2 extra to bring out and the second one would not have an additional cost.
Please let me know what you think of this new format and any suggestions for the format as a whole. Also feel free to suggest commander combos that should probably be banned so we can shape and evolve this format more easily.
Here is a deck I made to showcase the kinds of things you can do in this fantastic new format, the second commander is Rhys the Redeemed. I look forward to seeing what all of you can create and hearing what you all think. Happy brewing fellow magic players.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/allied-forces-hungry-thromok-and-chef-rhys/
kipahlord13 says... #3
This idea intrigues me, but I'm a bit unclear about the whole color identity of the two commanders. Do they both have to be different colors? Do they have to share one color?
October 5, 2016 8:25 a.m.
The only thing I wonder about, is that I THINK There was a ruling wizards were saying how there is only one command zone and it only has room for one card. correct me if I'm wrong which I could be cause this is something I'm recalling off the top of my head.
October 5, 2016 8:28 a.m.
bennybubbles says... #5
kipahlord13, they need to have the same number of colours (mono-mono, dual-dual, tri-tri) and cannot be exactly the same colours, but everything else is fair game, so they can share a colour or be completely different.
LeBeerCat, you may be right, I don't know the ruling off the top of my head either, but Plane cards in Planechase also exist in the command zone so I'm pretty sure it is allowed in the rules.
October 5, 2016 8:44 a.m.
Sim_Will_CMcantfindmehopefully says... #6
This will likely need a banlist for consistently powerful combinations, also I don't like that I can't run a 3 colour deck with a 3 colour commander. It feels weird.
October 5, 2016 9:16 a.m.
The_Final_Interviewer says... #7
Simon_Williamson I've found that using two dual-coloured commanders offers the same feeling.
October 5, 2016 9:18 a.m.
I feel like you must have 2 commanders with a color in common in order to keep the format from being overrun with 5-color-good-stuff decks.
October 5, 2016 9:34 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #9
LeBeerCat each player has a single command zone but there is no limit to the amount of objects that can be in the command zone. It is a zone like any other, it is just that nothing interacts with objects in the command zone.
October 5, 2016 9:34 a.m.
Gidgetimer Thanks, this makes sense when I start thinking about having multiple emblems that are all in the command zone together. So two commanders wouldn't be a far stretch.
October 5, 2016 9:46 a.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #11
Gidgetimer, Command Beacon has something to say to you about that. ;)
Also, Gaddock Teeg + Lavinia of the Tenth have my vote for a banned combination. Way too oppressive. But some people may like being oppressive (like me), so it's up to you.
October 5, 2016 9:49 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #12
Animar Karador sounds rather disgusting.
Teeg Jhoira sounds annoying.
Nahiri Godo sounds fun.
October 5, 2016 10:06 a.m.
LittleBlueHero says... #13
I really want to try this with Pia and Kiran Nalaar and Padeem, Consul of Innovation.
I can finally make the red blue artifact deck with commanders that are relevant!
October 5, 2016 10:57 a.m.
LittleBlueHero says... #14
Or Arcum Dagsson might actually be more bonkers....
October 5, 2016 10:59 a.m.
The_Final_Interviewer says... #15
LittleBlueHero Feel free to try that and be sure to suggest this format to all of your friends :) Together we might be able to make this an actual thing
October 5, 2016 7:54 p.m.
The_Final_Interviewer says... #16
MagicalHacker I'm loving these combos you're thinking of! hahaha feel free to try this format out with your playgroup and tell me what you think :) Maybe we can make this a popular format.
October 5, 2016 7:59 p.m.
I hate to be a downer, but adding the extra damage threshold (50 life, 20 poison, 31 CD) is just going to skew the format super far away from any sort of damage based deck. Adding in the fact that having two cards in the command zone will make combos easy to assemble, you really have a recipe for a format that's, "Who can combo out the fastest?" and literally nothing else, which is very unhealthy for a format (see: Tiny Leaders, a.k.a. Delver).
If you want to make deck size 120, that's no big deal, but you should really leave the life totals alone. Commander is combo-centric enough as it is.
Sim_Will_CMcantfindmehopefully says... #2
Call it dual commander.
...
Shut up that was funny.
October 5, 2016 8:08 a.m.