Good article from Sheldon Menery about EDH

[bradcoish23]

I feel the biggest hurdle for EDH is that players are told it is casual at entry. They are told to buy an intro deck or just play some fun cards and you will be fine. Good times. Then they go to the LGS and run into crazy combo decks week after week. There can't be any fun in that. I think that is the undertone people are commenting on from the article. In my opinion this was the purpose of the format, it has become something else. Things evolve as they grow, unfortunately EDH lost something when it became more competitive. It went from anything can happen to I see what is going to happen.

If you have your own playgroup this is certainly a non-issue. You can make modifications and your player base should be like minded individuals with similar bugets and skill levels. But if you are a beginning player who is just looking to have some fun at the LGS then it is a real issue. I feel it is very similar to the main problem standard has. It is sold as the step after kitchen table, however when players go to FNM they run into guys who think they are training for the Pro Tour.

[Soren841]

cEDH is a very small minority. EDH, like any format, is not casual or competitive, no matter what people would have you believe. Magic is a game, it is meant to be played and anything beyond that is completely up to the people playing it. If you have an issue with an asshole pubstomping then don't play with them, but they are not representative of cEDH.

[WWolfe]

I'm not going to get into the debate on how competitive Standard at FNM should be, but keep in mind that it's a tournament format with some level of prize support, so of course it's going to be more competitive than a kitchen table game. By it's format, FNM has made it this way.

One of the best things I think WOTC has done to help this stigma was open up FNM to where it could be any format. I know several shops that now run Modern or Draft events along with a Standard event separate. The one I go to the most in my area this Friday for instance is having a Standard FNM, a Modern FNM, and a Pauper FNM this week. At least at the shop I go to, more of the cut throat competitve players enter the Modern or other formats while it leaves the newer/less competitve players in the Standard event. Of course you still have the occassional @$$hat who will take his netdecked GP winning deck and tries to smoke everyone as quick as possible, but I've found that to be more the oddity than the norm.

EDH is different to everyone. I have a cEDH deck, several of what I would consider 75% decks, and two decks that I hold back for playing with newer/younger/less competitive players. Whatever type of player is at the shop I can grind with, but it's also up to the table to decide what type of game they want before the game begins.

[Morganator 2.0]

Which brings up the issue with Sheldon. Commander playstyles are different for everyone, and if I want to play stax, that's my choice. The commander website states that people are free to be creative and play the way they want to, even to make their own rules among a playgroup. The rulings on the commander official website are for when you wish to play among strangers. But it seems like when Sheldon shows up to an event, he wants people to play his way.

Even outside of that he says you shouldn't play stax or combo (because he says it's not fun):
http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/38150_What-SCG-Con-Taught-Me-About-Commander-And-Its-Players.html

He even lists a bunch of cards you shouldn't be playing:
http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/37865_Commander-Cards-You-Shouldnt-Play.html

He might of had a solid argument, but I have a hard time taking him seriously if Wound Reflection causes him emotional harm.

[WWolfe]

I have the feeling someone hit him with Sorin Markov's -3 and he died to Wound Reflection at the EOT.