There were two major innovations in the TCL2014 (Townsville Commander League 2014). These were the Doubleton format and the Australian Highlander Points List. I will discuss each below.
One of the key problems of 2HG is that it hacks the rules of MTG. That is, shared turns and shared life create artificial situations and make certain effects useless (Vengeful Pharaoh was the example in the previous piece) while rendering others absurd (see e.g. Time Warp). It appears at first blush to be a simple fix to sidestep this: have each person play on their own. The trouble there is that the rules allow teammates to have free and complete information exchange between them under the Multiplayer section in the Comprehensive Rules (CR).
We had explored the idea of having a League where each "team" is a collection of individuals who are technically opponents. This one of the features I argued in the previous post that is implicit in the design of the mtgcommander.net committee-based EDH model. The side effects of this can be seen clearly in EDH side-events at GPs: 2 round, sixteen player FFA events with four pods where the winner of each play in a final for prizes. Two friends in the same pod are strictly "opponents" within the rules, but can collaborate with information and effects. Thus, a spell such as Fact or Fiction essentially becomes a draw-five whereas Imperial Mask and the Surge cards from Oath of the Gatewatch are sub-optimal.
So Mark Norton, quite on his own, came up with an amazingly elegant solution to to this. Given that Richard Garfield was a long-standing Bridge player I have been stunned that this has not occurred at an earlier stage. In a sentence: Magic played in the same style as Bridge, 500, Whist, and Euchre. It is so simple conceptually that it blows my mind that this had not been explored in-depth by other authors.
Experienced MTG players when presented with this will almost immediately throw up a list of problems with such a scheme (unenforceability, ease of cheating, dexterity errors, hands-on adjudication). However, like all posited game designs, the only way to tell is to see how it plays out. Our initial test games of the mode (note this is a "mode" not a "format") can be summed-up simply:
Amazing.
Doubleton played out intuitively and smoothly. There are some gremlins with timing, interpretation of the rules, and player communication which we addressed over the course of several years, but the first few play runs in a social environment went very well. We were aware even back in 2014 that players would "push" boundaries and rule interpretations in a competitive environment. In fact, I used a very North Queenland-esque analogy to describe the difference between competitive Doubleton and 2HG judging-wise: Doubleton is like Rugby Union and 2HG is akin to Rugby League. For those that have not played both, in Union, the referee controls the flow of the game and is "at the coalface" at breakdowns to determine whether players are infringing (which requires interpretation and continuous judgement). In League, the referee is simply less important. When playing with a (large) group of friends, you can play a casual game of League without a referee (soccer is the same), whereas Union (and Australian Rules Fooball - AFL - which is little-played in North Queensland) always needs an adjudicator.
We tried to map out rules and guidelines for Doubleton as best we could. It was fundamentally Mark's idea and I have tried to map the original concept to the Comprehensive Rules, Tournament Rules, and Infractions Penalty Guide as best I could. As a different mode (not merely a format) the rules set actually overrides sections in all three documents. Making this congruent and consistent while adhering as close as possible to the original idea is a non-trivial task. I will discuss this at large in later posts, but for now it must be said that a lot of thought, design, testing, and reflection has gone into the Doubleton mode rules set. The significance of the Doubleton rules was perhaps unfortunately overshadowed by the introduction of an addtional build requirement: the Australian Highlander Points System (AHPS).
There can be only two
Although I neglected to mention this in the previous post, TCL2013 actually had a build restriction in the rules. There was a "Rules Committee" founded by Chris Piccone which adhered to the framework mapped out by Sheldon Menery et al. It was a useful mechanism for discussing playgroup-specific rules (such as banning cards, having an "extra turn" cap, a combo-cap, or restricting tutoring effects), However, the increase in players arguably led to the collapse of this. In fact, to demonstrate the disparity of thought, this is a chart I made back in 2014:
Ironically, the one card sitting on the Local Committee ban list was Sylvan Primordial (which the mtgcommander.net committee banned later anyway). But the group page established by Chris and Mark did set into motion the first EDH League and the local community is heavily indebted to Chris in particular for undertaking this .
During TCL2013, it became apparent however that there were mismatches of experience, expectation, and collections. Unfortunately, as EDH was designed as a pastime rather than a competitive format, budget is simply not a component of the format. Also, it is designed for small playgroups to determine their own build restrictions. Sheldon et al anticipated that groups would determine their own norms and kerb unwanted behaviour appropriately (which he somewhat erroneously refers to as a 'social contract').
Both of these are problematic when running a competition, even one with a strong social aspect. The existence of EDH websites made net-decking a trivial task, but the cost of undertaking this essentially meant that the TCL was fast becoming "Legacy-Light". For example, pretty much every EDH deck would play Sol Ring. Comments on internet EDH sources in regards to decks of any colour would list staples (e.g. Demonic and Vampiric Tutor) and the honest ones would list the expensive ones as well (e.g. Grim Tutor, Imperial Seal). Any intermediate-level or higher MTG player knows that Revised dual lands make decks absolutely better than those with only Ravnica shock lands. Cards such as Moat or Gaea's Cradle cannot be offset by "creative" deckbuilding choices on a poorer budget.
So we looked afield to see what other systems or alternatives exist. We looked at the French EDH system, the Canadian Highlander rules, and Australian Highlander.
Je ne comprend pas
The French EDH (FEDH or "Dual Commander") system is pretty simple. It is managed by a committee (there is a theme here...) who pick-and-choose cards to be banned or unbanned for the French
So, as at January 2017, these cards are legal in EDH but banned in FEDH
Ancient Tomb
Back to Basics
Dig Through Time
Entomb
Food Chain
Gaea’s Cradle
Grim Monolith
Hermit Druid
Humility
Imperial Seal
Loyal Retainers
Mana Crypt
Mana Drain
Mana Vault
Mind Twist
Mishra’s Workshop
Mystical Tutor
Natural Order
Necrotic Ooze
Oath of Druids
Protean Hulk
Sensei’s Divining Top
Sol Ring
Strip Mine
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
Treasure Cruise
Vampiric Tutor
There are also several cards in the EDH banlist that are allowed in FEDH:
Balance
Biorhythm
Coalition Victory
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Limited Resources
Lion's Eye Diamond
Metalworker
Painter's Servant
Panoptic Mirror
Recurring Nightmare
Sway of the Stars
Upheaval
Worldgorger Dragon
(may contain some errors)
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Marath, Will of the Wild
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Zur the Enchanter
I explored the FEDH rules set and development when looking into structures for TCL2014. It was interesting to note "[w]hen you play a game with more than two players, social interactions, diplomacy and negotiations usually prevent a player from taking a huge advantage at the start of the game" was the first sentence in the rules design section: a statement which is simply false (2HG for example has no diplomacy). It does again demonstrate the implicit rules that Sheldon et al somewhat inadvertently placed in the EDH system which have somewhat alarmingly been picked-up by many people without careful examination.
I then examined tournament results for decks (French EDH has extensive decklists online) and was dismayed: top decks eschewed the banned Strip Mine but all played Wasteland (and many also Crucible of Worlds). Blue decks, barred from Mana Drain, all had Force of Will, and many the three Time Walk effects (Time Warp, Temporal Manipulation, and Capture of Jingzhou). Grim Tutor, Survival of the Fittest, all Revised Duals, Stoneforge Mystic, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Sword of Feast and Famine, Umezawa's Jitte et al. It read like an unrestrained wish list. A very expensive one at that. Our thoughts are the time (which I for one still hold true) were that FEDH list shifts the power level sideways: Strip Mine becomes Wasteland, but the essential deckbuilding strategy for top-tier cards is the same. That is, not playing them (by choice or by financial necessity) puts you at an absolute disadvantage. All up, the ability to net-deck in entirety was (and still is) problematic. However, this coupled with an increased in prizes for TCL2014 and the cost of "essential" cards in each colour had the potential to create unfun play experiences ("nice $3,000+ deck!") as well as massive barriers-to-entry. The TCL is a regional Australia competition: cost and availability problems are arguably larger in this environment that capital cities.
Also, aligning a local league with another committee's ban-list had the potential to create mid-season disconformity. That is, a card might be legal at the start of the tournament but get banned (or as with Winter Orb in 2016, seriously errata-ed) during it. This was only a minor issue in a regional centre and could easily be mapped out in the rules.
The FEDH system also uses lower life totals and is designed for 1 v 1 matches. After the additional rules hacks required for the TCL2013 with 2HG, and knowing that there would be many Doubleton-related quirks, it was undesirable to change the MTG rules further.
Interestingly, one other reason that the FEDH list was undesirable was that it is not a sub-set of regular Commander: something that was vindicated in October 2014 when Commander became a sanctioned FNM format.
What aboot this one?
The Canadian Highlander system changed somewhat since we looked into this in 2014. This is managed by yet another semi-secret committee. The CHS is based on the Australian system (see below) and, in its present form it is a 100-card (minimum) singleton without commanders. Not-tournament cards (ante, dexterity, conspiracy, unhinged) are banned, and all other cards are allocated a points value from 0 (which is 99% of magic cards) to 7 (Black Lotus). Decks can only have 10 points for every 100 cards (rounded down).
Ancestral Recall – 5
Balance – 1
Birthing Pod – 3
Black Lotus – 7
Demonic Tutor – 4
Dig Through Time – 1
Doomsday -2
Enlightened Tutor – 2
Fastbond – 1
Flash – 6
Gifts Ungiven – 1
Hermit Druid – 4
Imperial Seal – 2
Intuition – 1
Library of Alexandria – 1
Lim-Dul’s Vault – 1
Mana Crypt – 2
Mana Vault – 1
Mind Twist – 1
Mox Emerald – 3
Mox Jet – 3
Mox Pearl – 3
Mox Ruby – 3
Mox Sapphire – 3
Mystical Tutor – 2
Natural Order – 5
Oath of Druids – 1
Personal Tutor – 1
Protean Hulk – 3
Sol Ring – 4
Stoneforge Mystic – 1
Strip Mine – 2
Summoner’s Pact – 2
Survival of the Fittest – 2
Tainted Pact – 1
Time Vault – 7
Time Walk – 5
Tinker – 5
Tolarian Academy – 1
Transmute Artifact – 1
Treasure Cruise – 1
True-Name Nemesis – 1
Umezawa’s Jitte – 2
Vampiric Tutor – 3
There was not a lot of difference between this and the Australian list, and the deck size is the same as EDH, which was good. I think that if the 2017 list and rules were in place back in 2014, this might have been looked at more.
Das ist gud ya ?
The German Highlander system is a simple 100 card list developed by, you guessed, a committee. No commanders, and a simple ban list:
Ancestral Recall
Balance
Birthing Pod
Black Lotus
Chaos Orb
Entomb
Falling Star
Flash
Gifts Ungiven
Grindstone
Imperial Seal
Library of Alexandria
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Mind Twist
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Natural Order
Sensei's Divining Top
Shahrazad
Skullclamp
Sol Ring
Stoneforge Mystic
Strip Mine
Survival of the Fittest
Time Vault
Time Walk
Tinker
Umezawa's Jitte
Vampiric Tutor
Interestingly, German Higlander allows the use of International Edition, Collector's Edition, and Championship deck cards (gold and orange borders). That said, there is little to prefer this over the French system when running an EDH League.
Maaate!
I have been aware of Australian Highlander since I moved to the Land Girt by Sea in 2006, although I must confess that I have never played in an event. It is essentially Vintage overlaid with a 7-point build restriction. The current list is here:
Current List
4 points:
Ancestral Recall, Black Lotus
3 points:
Demonic Tutor, Imperial Seal, Sol Ring, Time Vault, Time Walk, Tinker, Vampiric Tutor, Yawgmoth’s Will.
2 points:
Channel, Library of Alexandria, Mana Crypt, Mind Twist, Mox Emerald, Mox Jet, Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire, Mystical Tutor, Skullclamp, Strip Mine, Tolarian Academy.
1 point:
Balance, Birthing Pod, Crop Rotation, Dig Through Time, Dark Petition, Enlightened Tutor, Fastbond, Flash, Force of Will, Gifts Ungiven, Green Sun’s Zenith, Hermit Druid, Intuition, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Karakas, Lim-Dul’s Vault, Mana Drain, Mana Vault, Mishra’s Workshop, Muddle the Mixture, Natural Order, Oath of Druids, Memory Jar, Merchant Scroll, Personal Tutor, Protean Hulk, Snapcaster Mage, Steelshaper’s Gift, Stoneforge Mystic, Survival of the Fittest, Tainted Pact, Time Spiral, Timetwister, Treasure Cruise, True-Name Nemesis, Umezawa’s Jitte, Yawgmoth’s Bargain, Wasteland, Wheel of Fortune, Worldly Tutor
No surprises that the list is curated by a committee, with (possibly mandated) updates each year. AH has multiple tournaments in the capital cities, with the largest following being in Melbourne. I was drawn to the depth and thoughtfulness of the list, the fact that net-decking is much more challenging, and it elegantly overlaid onto the regular EDH rules and banlist.
By the time the rules for the TCL2014 were being put together in mid-to-late 2014, a schism had occured in the local community. For a while, there were two Facebook groups, two rules groups, and tournaments run by each (with different rules of course). I have noted this in previous posts but I feel the influx of experienced-in-MTG-players-bit-new-to-EDH in TCL2013 led to a boom in team numbers, but ultimately fractured the playing base into purely social vs social-competitive. In future posts I will explain how we addressed this, but in relation to Aussie Highalnder, it must be said that this was helpful to try and "bridge the gap". It is a long-standing format, it could be overlaid onto "real" EDH rules easily, it did not require any hacks, and it helped kurb the use of "no brainer" cards in the TCL2014.
On reflection, the AH list fulfilled each of these problems and was a good choice at the time. We were adamant that any such list should not be derived by a small group of people - or at least not done locally. It also arguably solidified the legitimacy of the TCL in general by partially aligning with a long-standing format.
Final thoughts
The TCL2014 final was double-Maelstrom Wanderer against Olivia+Teferi and was a tense best-out-of-seven decided 4 games to 3. Some things that came from this match that arguably could be applied to the entire season.
Firstly, the points list was accepted begrudgingly. The experienced players accepted the need for it to exist, although disagreed on its content. Several noted, quite rightly, that the AHPS is designed for 20-life, 1v1, non-Commander play. While the general power level curve is probably okay, the uber-Generals (such as those on the French ban list) can be played indiscriminately.
While it was neat to have a unique build environment, one comment that came back was the need to change or evolve it. We did not want to pick-and-choose cards and/or rules arbitrarily (as all other committees, including those in Townsville), but wanted to create an interesting build enviroment and a fun, exciting play format. These were all taken into account when mapping out TCL2015.
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