#rule zero

AND THEN I FORGOT TO PUT THE PONY ROBOT TOGETHER ARRRGGGHH

A few months ago, frustrated with the lack of useful Rule Zero tools for Commander power level discussion, I decided I should create a metric I could hopefully use with my own playgroup. The first step was to make sure everything wasn’t a Seven - to this end, I made everything sub-precon in power level a 1, and excluded CEDH entirely. But, a quippy umber with no context isn’t super helpful, especially when there’s room for subjectivity. So, I decided to include a focus on the qualities within a deck, to create a sort of ‘bio’ system that can quickly and effectively introduce a new list to your table.

I hope that this system might help some people, or at the very least give some ideas that can spawn new ways to improve Rule Zero for casual commander.

Figured I’d post something up to defibrillate this account. Since power levels are too nebulous, I only have a few guidelines if we’re newly playing each other in Commander. 1. No lockout or solitaire strategies. Grave Pact and Martyr’s Bond are on my personal ban list. In short, let people play Magic. Being the only one capable of having meaningful turns, or in the case of solitaire, the only one to have turns ever, is not an enjoyable way to play 4-player Magic. Pillow fort can stay, but if you have Ensnaring Bridge, that affects everyone else.

2. No pen and paper proxies. I feel the financial effect of certain cards is what keeps a lot of concerning playing pieces from hurting general casual Commander. Tabernacle should be banned, but because it’s a prohibitively expensive card, it doesn’t hit that many tables. PaP proxies bypass this in an unhealthy way when you can just write the name of cards with no regard for cost. I’m sure the player running Blossoming Sands feels real great looking at the other player with some notebook paper that has “Savannah” written on it.