[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Big 10's the best, we do this in the Big 10, we do that in the Big 10, this brand of basketball, these. And I went to the Big 12. And obviously because I'm a basketball junkie, I've watched so many Big 12 games, SEC games, ACC games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you don't know to me how the league is until you actually play in it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have a great understanding of the ACC from a bird's eye view, but I'm looking forward to playing in the league. I played, obviously I played a couple of different ACC teams during my times over the years, but you know, um, obviously it's a great league. It produces a lot of pros.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but I'm, I'm very excited to kind of see the ins and outs and the grind of the league. I think you gotta, you know, the Big 12, Big 10, I've been in a grind of those leagues. And so I saw them night in, night out. So I'm excited about watching it in the ACC.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I think it's a ton of different reasons, uh, but I agree with you. I think that the Big Ten is so physical. Uh, I think by the time a lot of those teams get to the NCAA tournament.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, they're so beat up, uh, because you just beat each other up in that league playing those 20 games, that 20 game schedule. Uh, you know, obviously the way the game is called to me personally in the big 10 is a little bit different than the way the game is called in some other leagues. And so they, they allow so much physicality and I think you end up, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Beating each other up so much in those leagues and you get to the NCAA tournament and the game's a little more fast paced, it's up and down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, it's a lot of different athletes. They, they let you play freedom of movement. I think that's, I think the, the way the game is called in NCAA tournament and in the big 10, it's a little bit different. That's my, I can be completely wrong about that, but you asked for my opinion. That's my personal opinion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm curious, you've played in both leagues too, so I'll be curious at a later time to find out what you think. I mean, you've been in the trenches and been in the battles in both leagues, so. Yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can't believe I missed this ride. I know it. Second city. Second city. Second city. Gosh. Have you been?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what, it was like a scan, I think it was a scandal that, yeaah, uhm, I don't know it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I grew up a big White Sox fan because I grew up on the south side, working on the north side between Loyola,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'ma tell you this, not too many people know, people think it's because of the wind. Most people, even in Chicago, think it's because of the winds. It's not even that windy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, no, it should be very interesting. Uh, it's, it's something that everyone is a little bit confused about. I think we've had so many changes lately, right? But it should be an interesting topic to talk about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's really a mix, uh, I think some of the things are the best I've ever been and some of the things are not so good. I think that's gonna be the case with almost every system, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but the biggest issue that we have right now is that things change too much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I feel like we haven't had the same system be, the organized play system, uh, two years running.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And in what's been, it's felt like 10 years, right, since we've had the same system from one year to another. Which makes it very hard to follow anything, it makes it very hard to plan for things. Right, because people who are interested in an organized system, some of them, they wanna make this their life, right, they're living their livelihood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you don't know what it's gonna look like a year from now, because it's never been similar from one year to the other in the past 10 years, that's a really hard thing to do. It's really hard to commit when you don't know what you're committing to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, so the whole system had to change to adopt Magic Arena.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they were, uhm, kind of like, uhm, you know, unknown ground for Magic, I think, uh, with, with this whole online play thing. So they have been trying stuff out and what works they keep and what doesn't work they don't keep. And then that means that year after year this system keeps changing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? Uh, but some of the things like just changing the names of the events, right? Oh, we're gonna pick Player's Tour instead of Pro Tour. So it's a different event, but it's also the same initial, so it's really confusing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right. Right. Right. And it's like, oh, we want to preserve part of the history, but not preserve the history at all. And then we're also going to erase all of the DCI history and stuff like that. So I feel like that is kind of confusing. Like are they trying to preserve the history or to just erase everything and start over? And if that's what they're doing, why is that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, so yeaah, I think it's been a mix of things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's hard to say because I feel like every period has had elements that were very important. For example, right now, one of the things that is best about the system right now is that the amount of money is the largest by far.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, so in, in this system, uh, it is possible to make a living from magic, I think. Uh, from just playing magic. Right, it is a thing that some people can do. And the number of people who can do it, and who gets to do it, is what the system is defining, and maybe it's not the best because of that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it is possible for someone to, you know, have a family and have a good living in a good place by being just a magic player. And I feel like in previous years, when the system was better in some aspects, the amount of money was so much lower that it wasn't possible for anyone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To, to have a family and have a good life by being just a Magic player.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, I-I-I feel like this system is better because it allows these things to exist, even though it's not as finely tuned as it could be, even though it's confusing, even though it's not necessarily fair, uh, at least it's possible for someone to have that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, whereas in previous systems, it kinda wasn't possible for anyone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, but they were better at identifying who deserved to get the things they most, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They were more fair. Like if you were a good player, you got in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, and now it's not necessarily just about that. At least that's what I look for in an OP system, and maybe that is, uh, you know, my bias showing because I'm a good player, so I want the things that benefit me, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so I think the best system that we can have would probably be, like, the level system that we had before. You know, they were all pretty comparable. I think, like, level 6, level 8, platinum, uh, the systems that we've had over the years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I believe they were better from, from an OP standpoint than the MPL is, but I believe the amount of money that exists now is much better than before. So if I could merge the previous system with this amount of resources, that would be the best, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I-I definitely agree with you. I think it's still obtainable, but it's much, much, much harder, and I think harder than it should be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, the previous systems, they were better in that regard, because they made everyone start on equal footing every season, right, basically. Some people already qualified for everything, which made it obviously easier, but I felt like it was much, much more possible, much more of an attainable dream to go, uh, you know, start, uh, nowhere basically, and then end up in a very good spot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I feel like right now, it's very, very hard. There are some stories like that, right? If you look at, you know, Chris Kvartek, for example, Chris Kvartek just started playing, did well in a bunch of events, and then just qualified for everything, and then now he's in the system.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, but it's very unlikely. I think in previous years, we'd have, you know, 5 or 10 Kriss Kvartex, and now we just have Kriss Kvartex.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's also, it's such a hard thing because, uh, I think when you have magic professionals, you tell these people, okay, you're gonna dedicate your life to doing this, right? This is going to be your job. And magic is a job that offers almost no security.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? And then, you know, Magic is a game where, you know, even the best players have a 65% win rate. And depending on how you distribute this win rate, uh, like, you could just not do well in any tournament with a 65% win rate, right? Or you could go 14-0 and then 0-14 and that's a 50% win rate, but it's really good. Right? So it's, it's so hard to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To just have any security in it because you don't know what's gonna happen next year. Right, you take my career for example, I was Platinum, or the highest equivalent, for like five years running, and then I was Silver, which is like two steps below, for two straight years. And I don't think much changed in the way of my life or preparation, right, it's just something that happens. And then you're asking these people to be professional players, and, but have no security of what their lives are gonna look like next year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is literally being fired, right? You, you have this job for a year, and then next year you're just not qualified for the tournament.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're like, well, I don't have a job anymore. I have to, to find something to do. And the MPL gave you that security.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the expense of making it so much harder to let people win. And how do you balance the two? It's really hard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's really unlikely. Honestly, it would, it would be so stupid for them to do that. Uh, that I- Of course. That I don't- That doesn't, but that's, that's-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, that's fair, but I think they recognize that, I think the Pro2 has a lot of value, not, it has a lot of value in so many ways, right? It has value because, well, there's the viewership and then, but also there's the dream.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, there are the people who are just like following it. And then there's all the events that feed into the Pro Tour, right? If you eliminate the Pro Tour, you also eliminate PTQs. And then you eliminate GBs, right? Because a lot of people go and play GBs because they want to get in the system.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? And then if people don't have PDQs to play anymore, suddenly they might not pay attention to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then the Magic website started taking a hit too, right? Why are you gonna read an article from a good player if you're just playing, if there's absolutely no...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No perspective that you ever get anywhere, right? Without organized play.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I don't think they would just demolish this entire structure that has existed for such a long time. They might change it enough that it doesn't feel like organized play anymore, because it's so different from what we had before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I don't think they're gonna do that because I think this past couple years were an experiment. Uh, I don't know how familiar you are with the new changes that they've- they announced it like a month ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, the gist of it was that in the previous year, the MPL had almost no turn, right? You, you would have, uh, you know, say, the numbers might not be exact, but you would have like 24 people in the MPL, and then next year, uh, 20 of the people would remain, and 4 new people would get in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then Rivals was similar, right? You'd have, you know, 48 people into Rivals and if 40 would remain, only 8 people would get in. So, whoever was on top just stayed on top.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and I, this new system, it's kinda the opposite of that. Like, of the 24 people in the MPL, 4 are gonna remain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then, uh, there's a potential for some more to remain through a gauntlet, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, the idea is to have a lot more churn than there was before. So they are making it much easier for people who aren't in the system to get in the system, which I think is ultimately a good thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, I might not agree with the numbers exactly, but I think the idea to make it more accessible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is there, so I think they did recognize that a big part of their strength is the fact that people participate in organized play.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, because I think Magic sets itself apart a little bit, uh, in the sense that Magic is a game for the players first and foremost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which isn't true with a lot of other games, right? I feel like League of Legends, for example, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's basically Split, right? It is a game for the players, but it's also a game for the viewers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and that makes the whole dynamic different, right? They sacrifice a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, in terms of game, because they want it to be good for the viewers, because that's their thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I don't think that's magic's thing. I think magic's thing is that people can play, people enjoy playing. There's so many different ways of playing magic, right? You can play commander, you can play just with your child.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, or you can play FNM, or you can try to be a pro.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, there's- or you can play online or in person. There's just so many different ways of playing. And that is Magic Strength.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think in the past couple years, they kinda forgot that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They fought that ma- they wanted magic to be about the viewers, and they sacrificed a lot in terms of it being about the players. One of the things being that they just wanted the MPL, they wanted the same faces in there to- for them to be more recognizable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? But then, they kinda killed the dream. They made it impossible for the players to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To have the chance to get there, right? But I think they realized, after this year, that this is not what they're supposed to do. And I think they're gonna embrace the, the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Play aspect of Magic, a little bit more from that one. At least that is the impression I have based on the direction the changes are going. Like obviously I don't actually know this, right? I know that people think that, you know, all the pro players have those secret groups where they are told everything and it's just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't actually know the direction the game is going, but I can, you know, summarize that from the changes that have been happening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I think it's still unlikely, right? I wouldn't bat an eye on it happening, but it's definitely more possible than the other thing that you asked, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't think there's any chance they will ban organized play. I also don't think there's any chance they'll stop making paper cards. But moving organized play specifically to digital, I think is a possibility.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, because of just how much better it is to watch. Right? Even if you... So I'm a player that I prefer playing in person. Right? I don't love playing online. Never have. Right? I've always liked playing in person. I like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the feel of the cards and I like, you know, the, the social aspect of just being in a different country with my friends that I rarely get to see. Like that is important to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I also think I play better in person because online there's just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, there's stuff happening more around you. I feel it's harder to focus. Each person is different here, right? Some people prefer lines, some people prefer paper. I prefer paper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? But I still think online is easier to follow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, because the hands are all there and then the game does all the things for you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, there's no, like, there's a timer, so you don't get this, oh, this person's been thinking for three minutes, like, there are no judge calls, you know. So in that regard, if they value viewership a lot, then I believe that is something they could potentially do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think, again, it's really good in some things and really bad in others. I believe it definitely has the potential to do everything we need it to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, I-I-I think if you just fix all the issues then the-the skeleton is there, right? It just has so many issues right now. Uh, and-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It, that, it's stuff that looks simple from my perspective, but I know zero of programming of any kind. So it could be this kind of stuff that is like, oh, actually this is almost impossible to do, but it looks very easy from the outside.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, we've had people who, like, oh, disconnect for, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 10 seconds, and then they lose the match. Right. Because of that. Right. But that's not great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, you have people who challenge each other in, in different challenge settings and they just play the game in a different, like with hand fixing algorithms where they shouldn't have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And all this kind of stuff and you have like the client not passing priority when it should pass priority.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or you have the autotapper randomly tapping a bad land. And stuff like that. So, but I think this is all-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's all fixable, right? I imagine it's all fixable. Uhm, if they just make it a priority.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, which I don't know if they have been making it a priority.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think Arena is great. I like Arena more than Magic Online. I play almost exclusively Arena.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, but some of the things in Arena just make no sense to me. For example, like the Amonkhet board. Right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, this is a board that can happen when you play Amikather Master, or even when you play Historic. And then there are a lot of people who just get sick by watching it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, that's just a thing that happens. And you're like, well how does, how does this get to happen?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? And why wasn't it fixed yet? I don't know. I don't know how long it takes. I don't know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and so it's the kind of thing that it looks fixable to me, just remove the board or change the board.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, like for example, the dog, right? There's a dog that is a pet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and it makes a noise that is very annoying to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I don't know if there's even a way to turn it off. And sometimes I'm playing in a tournament and then there's this dog barking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the program that I can't remove or don't know how to remove, right? It's just like, well, if only you made it possible for me to not hear the dog, it would just be better. But now I'm playing this important tournament, hearing the dog.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think the biggest mistake is really the focus on viewership, uh, as opposed to everything else. Right, for example, you take limited.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, Limited is a big part of Magic. A lot of people love Limited. There are very successful podcasts that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, there's Focus only on Limited, there are streamers that stream for thousands of people that only play Limited. And Limited is fun. I like playing Limited. Like, when I'm going to a constructed tournament, it's like, oh my god, I have to choose a deck, it's so stressful. And Limited is like, yay, I'm going to pre-release. You know, I love Limited.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, Limitless also I think sells a lot of packs, right? I don't know about how other people behave, but I used, I spent a lot of money in my magic here just buying packs to draft. Right, because it was a fun activity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And all the packs that I bought were for drafting. Even, even right now, before a winner tests for a tournament, we each buy a box.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? And I imagine there are a lot of people like that. A lot of people just like to draft and spend their money in drafting and that's obviously good for WotC. Yet, they're almost killed limited, right? Because it's not good for the viewers. Yep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So this is, this is something that like, yeaah, I agree, Limitless is not good for the viewers, but at what point are you willing to sacrifice, like, everything else to get an extra thousand viewers? Because it's not like you're going from 5,000 viewers to a million viewers. You're not becoming League of Legends, this is not Magic Strength.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, you're going from 5,000 viewers to 6,000. Maybe 7,000. Right, and-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it worth it? To me, it's not. I think you should try to make the tournaments as best as they can be for people who want to play in them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? And not necessarily just for the people who are watching. So I think...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think, and for example, the invites, right? They had the discretionary invites and stuff like that. And then they just invited a bunch of players who are not from Magic, right? They invited, say, Savitz, right? Don't get me wrong, I like Savitz a lot, I talked to him during the tournaments, he's actually a really nice person, but I don't think he should be put in the NPL.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? And then you have all these people who are just trying their hardest and just wanna be in the system and there's no room for them because you're bringing someone from a different game just to get more viewers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, and I wish they wouldn't do that. I wish they, they would, you know, and now everyone's mad about it, right? And rightfully so, because if you've been trying for five years and you feel like you finally got there,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, oh, there's finally a spot on this thing. Oh wait, it's this person from- this streamer from a different game that's gonna get it. I think that feels really bad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? And so that would, I think is the biggest weakness, is focusing too much on viewership and not enough on magic strength, which is that people love playing it and they wanna be part of the system.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, it's, it's the things that set magic apart, right? I don't think...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, I don't think other games have that. And Magic does? And instead of just building into it? And they, they just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It feels to me like, you know, the grass is always greener on the other side, so they're like, oh, you know, Hearthstone has all these viewers, League of Legendary has all these viewers, but they don't have the drafters, right? And Magic does, and are you willing to sacrifice those for, to get some more viewers? Or should you just embrace what Magic does?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is and has been for the past 20 years, right? I, I, my vote is embraced, but again, I'm not, I'm not a businessman. I'm not, you know, I don't have insight into the company's finances. So I could just be saying something that makes no sense from, from a company's point of view. But from my point of view, it feels like they should embrace magic streams.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't think it's a fad. I think, uh, you know, personally I don't play commander. I have played before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have played like competitive commander in the store, you know, 1v1, just everyone trying to win on turn 2, uh, this kind of thing, but this whole like, oh, play with 8 people, well, politics, if I attack you, I don't attack, you know, that's not for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I think the beauty of magic is that you can approach it in many different ways.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, uh, and I think it is totally valid to just release stuff for the people who want to play Commander.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? They don't have to cater all the products to the competitive audience, or even all the cards in a product to the competitive audience.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, so if, you know, there's a standard set, and then there's some cars that are not meant for standard, and they're meant for commander, and I think that's good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Again, it's taking magic strength that it can be played in any way that you want and embracing that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? It's like, oh, you like playing commander? Okay, we're gonna enable you to do that as much as possible. And I think that's good. The only part that I don't like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is when the, the more competitive formats get sacrificed for the sake of commander.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, for example, Wilderness Reclamation. Right? Wilderness Reclamation, uh, originally it was a design that said you shouldn't tap, you untap your lands when they untap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then that was too strong in commander, right, because he would get 8 untaps per turn.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so they just change it to untap at the endstap, which I'll now do to double your mana.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, to, to play a, you know, a 10 mana card with, with 5 lands in play, which wasn't possible before. So it's the kind of thing, you're like, oh, this card is Breaking Commander.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And instead of like, oh, how can we fix this while not making you break standard, right? Oh, maybe you just target a player. Maybe you didn't chance a player and then on their turn you untap, right? That would work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're just like, yeaah, let's make an attempt at the end of the turn. And, you know, who cares what happens to standard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like in that regard, they need to be a little bit more careful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, when they print cards like, you know, oh, there's, there are cards in, in the commander set that, or the set that is meant for casual, they're gonna be good in legacy, right? That's fine. But how good are they gonna be? How accessible are these cards going to be?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I think they need to be a little bit more careful when they do this kind of thing, right? Don't forget everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, because of Commander, but at the same time, yeaah, I think, embrace it, right? Just, everyone, we're all Magic players, just have products for everyone, I think that's a good thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, certainly not a problem. I think, uh, again, you know, uh, embrace what people want to do. Sure. And I think it's great that there is content for everybody, right? I, I, I produce content a lot. Yes, you do. I have a specific audience, right? People who want to get better. And not everyone wants to get better and be competitive. And there's no reason these people shouldn't have content too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, so I really like that it's now possible to have a more casual audience, or, you know, regardless of what you're doing, either you're like, oh, this is for Commander, or this I'm reviewing his leaves, or this I'm talking about, you know, specifically Legacy Goblins for whoever likes Goblins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or there's, you know, I'm just talking about limited, or I'm talking about, you know, nothing, or making a cube, right? Cube is one example. There are a lot of people who are focused on cube. And if there is an audience for that, I think you should just embrace it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The one thing that I don't like is that I feel there is an excessive focus on streaming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I feel like this is part of the, you know, how we're obsessed with viewership too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because I feel like Magic has really embraced streaming in, in detriment of every other form of content creation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this really goes about playing to your strengths, right? Magic has a vast history of all forms of content creation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, I-I-I am a League of Legends enthusiast, right? And then I tried to find articles about League of Legends, I literally couldn't do that. Right. Like I asked coaches, they're like, I-I need this resource, where can I go read about it? And it's impossible. People just don't write, read, and content for League of Legends. And in Magic, they've been doing it for years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? And, but if you look at the content creator program, I would not be able to apply for it. Right. Because I don't stream. Right? And you're like, well, I've been writing articles for like 15 years. Right? I've written almost a thousand articles. I think other than like, whatsy people like, you know, Mark Rosewater, I might be the most prolific magic writer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? And, and I've had a podcast and I have done videos.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and all kind of stuff. And yet, I'm not a content creator.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You might be the most popular content creator in Magic right now, right? You're certainly up there. And people who, you know, do alters and cosplaying and stuff, these people are all a big part of the Magic community, and they're all creators.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I feel like what's the kind of tunnel down streamers and like, yeah, these are the people we want to support because if you look at.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I don't think it did, at least. I don't think it met the numbers that they were hoping for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But ultimately, again, I don't, I, I just don't think that should have been their goal from the start.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it really just comes down to embracing the things that set magic apart rather than trying to be like everyone else.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, everything that I would do would be around that. It would be like, oh, maybe we should get some more limited back because people like playing limited and it's good for us if they play limited. Maybe we should incentivize, you know, cosplayers and writers and podcasters and YouTubers a little bit more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like Magic is 20 years old, like 25, 28, uh, you know, how, how many of these games are this old? It's very rare. So I'm not saying like ignore coverage, I'm not saying, you know, oh, don't focus with your ship at all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But just, I wouldn't focus on it above everything else. I think Magic is a game to be enjoyed, not to be viewed from afar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So if people are looking at the game, but they don't think they can ever get that, they don't relate in a personal way, it's not gonna work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, it only works if people see themselves as being able to experience these things. It's different than other games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, some games, you know, again, me, League of Legends, I could never play a game of League of Legends in my life again, I just enjoy watching.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, I don't think magic is like that. I think magic...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Magic is for the players and there's so many of them and they're so different that I would just try to embrace that as much as I could.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you can find me on Twitter, I'm PVDDR on Twitter, you can just message me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and I think if you wanna be a part of Magic's competitive system, y-you should go for it. Uh, even though it is a bit harder now, I think it is gonna get easier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And especially now with so much online magic, I think anyone can succeed, right? If you have dedication,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, if you have the time, if you have the resources, but especially if you just really wanna do it, it is possible. It's not easy, but it's possible. Do you think I could succeed at professional magic? No, no, not at all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Improve or otherwise streamline the format to fix recurring issues or just to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This has been a hot topic of discussion the last several weeks, and we are going to discuss it here, but what I think distinguishes us a little bit is that we have member of the Commander Advisory Group.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Changes to commander that have been discussed in recent weeks and just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What do you make of this? What do you, what do you, what do you make of hybrid mana changes?


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[Assistant] Well, but, but it counts as a green and a white because a card that affects green


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it opens up and so would Reese be mono green as a commander if we changed the rule?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems like a very strange change to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that there's a weirdness too, to the idea that I might be in a mono white deck, let's say.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I run Boros Reckoner, who is a white-red hybrid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then I cast Boros Reckoner and someone could respond with a Pyroblast, which is a card that counters target red spell. Right. And eye and mono white.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then get a spell countered by a spell that counters red spells only.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a little weird as well, I think. I feel that there's only two...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why restrict my deck building? I wanna run these cards. It opens up creative deck building, less of a narrow linear deck building. I'm all for less narrow, less linear deck building, but I would also offer that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The restrictions can breed creativity. That having these restrictions is part of the fun of commander. You can only have a hundred cards. You can only have cards in your commander's color identity. Why do we not just let you run?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Any cards of any color and have any commander you want. That can be cool too. And that could lead to some really cool, interesting, different decks, I'm sure. But that's part of like, well, we're going to play with restrictions. And, and so restrictive deck building can be part of the joy of commander.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From the design perspective, what we've heard is that it is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Causing difficulty in designing four commander cards with the hybrid mana rules as they are. To which I'd say...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I, I tend to agree with that. I feel kind of like, first off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The people in R&D are some of the most brilliant, intelligent, insightful people, to which you say, well, they're saying they want this, so they know what they're talking about, but I would say they're also very competitive. They, you know, uh, uh, uh, uh, players who they're looking at.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] White in commander doesn't have this, we'd like to give it, it would be a white red hybrid card, we want people to run that in a mono white or a white green commander, and I just feel like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you can't make it work as just a mono white card,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then don't worry about it. Focus on standard, focus on draft.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we will take from that and we will figure out how to make it work. And it's okay, I think, if there's something that white just doesn't do well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe look at the larger picture of white, but it's like, you know, maybe it's okay if white just doesn't do this well, but give it something else that it does well. You don't want all the colors to be the same anyway.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright. The next thing that has been discussed is what about removing the 100 card limit and that you can have more or the 99 card limit plus commander and have as many cards in a commander deck as you like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, this is something that has been discussed largely around the card Battle of Wits, which is a alternate win condition. Battle of Wits, at the beginning of your upkeep, if you have 200 or more cards in your library, you win the game. You can't win with this card.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, well not 200, I need 200 or more. You need what? 202 maybe. What about stuff in my graveyard?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, so you're gonna make tutors, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't know what you proposed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know what the proposed commander battle of wits deck is, but people have said, why do we have to restrict to 100 cards? Why do we have to restrict to 100 cards? Why can't we?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think there's a big, in a lot of this, this, I think there's a big discounting of the idea that Commander is a format where you should be talking with and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right. Is there a reason not to remove?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The 100, like, like, is there a re- reason not to remove the 100 card limit?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and I also think that a response to that combo that you mentioned, which was a ridiculous combo and such, it shouldn't be, well, we gotta ban that because now all you have to do is get this going and you can abuse to Ferris Protection and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I built Leovold super optimized out of curiosity. I knew, I knew the deck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I knew how it worked, but I wanted to pilot it and I had the pieces.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just, and so I went through my folders, I spent weeks putting it together and this and picking out the lands, shuffled it up, sat down with my play group, I told them what I had and everyone groaned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and it was fascinating because I did become the archenemy and everybody was like, okay, is there a way to take him out? And when I had the lock in, there's this one moment when, when there's still a chance where you draw.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And before you discard, you can cast an instant. And so if you get an instant that removes the artifact, and so people are like, so what do you have in your deck that you might eventually draw that'll get rid of it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Needless to say I won. And afterwards the playgroup actually said that was really interesting. That's a neat one to bring out again. And I said, I'll tell you the truth, I had a great deal of fun playing with this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm done, because it's not how I personally enjoy playing commander.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so I took it apart and, and, and, and I don't see why if my curiosity had not been for battle of wits, I couldn't have just said, I really wanted to try this battle of wits deck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What about poison damage? So poison, in fact, is a win condition. You only need 10 infect counters to kill your opponent. This is designed for standard games where the life total is 20. 10 is obviously half of 20. English major can still do math. People say well commander is 40.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To when? In Commander with Infect, shouldn't we change the Infect rules to reflect the starting life in Commander?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It doesn't always work. It's not this guarantee. I don't have it as a guaranteed thing. There are just games where I might be able, and it's not going to take everybody out. It's maybe this one opponent. Boom. I'm going to, in fact, you could optimize and have creator who's been absolutely get everybody that way, but you could also get them normally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you are really upset about losing to Infect all the time, you can put a Solemnity or a, uh, uh, uh, Malira.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Red, black, you know, like, there's not a lot of options.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For it, but is it really cheap that you're winning with 10 poison? Is there an argument to be made against?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess that yeaah, are we really seeing all these decks with Infect just running rampant where it's just too easy to win? Who's your Infect commander? Skittles?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, like, like, that's it. That's all you got for an Infect Commander.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Most decks are not, most decks are not going to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Infect pure. It's just more like there's an infect option.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The format is itself dying to infect her. How big and how prevalent does a problem like infect wins have to be before you start saying


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nope. That's fair. You abstained from saying you're opinion on it. That's fair.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So when it gets to the point where Infect is as good as Flash, that's when maybe we need to look at changing the rules.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I also feel like there might be a propensity. Magic players are very smart, and though we are red mage emotional at times, we also have very analytical minds. And I think that for a lot of magic players,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. And so it's, it's, it's, they feel like it's not so much that, oh, in fact is just giving you the same problems as Flash in the CEDH community, but rather it's more just like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And again, no, that's anecdotal, that's your play group. But I also don't hear about it. I hear about Flash. Obviously that's the topic of the current event. But back, okay, so another example is when Tuck, uh, the Tuck rules had not yet been changed. I heard about Tuck and the problem with Tuck. Constantly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, and the only color that had access to Tuck was white, so there was a great imbalance, and it was, or I think most of the Tuck, there's an exception, there's always an exception. But nonetheless, it was just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On this next one, I actually want you to help me out a little bit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Commander Death Triggers. What is the issue with this? I understand it, but I want to hear it told to me using different words because I don't play any of these commanders and so we're talking about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So a commander that has a death trigger, it does not trigger if you put them in the command zone. Now you can choose to let them hit the graveyard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the same goes for exile or going to your hand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can theoretically let it get exiled. I can let it get unsummoned to my hand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, if I redirect it to the command zone, it didn't ever go to my hand, it didn't ever go to exile, and in the case of death, it never really died. It just returned, it changed zones. How many commanders have death triggers? Uh, I mean, a lot, I would assume.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But isn't that something where the way the card was intended is getting superseded by just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An oddity of the commander format where, where I feel like this is a little different.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shouldn't that player receive the benefit if it's written on the card for there to be a death trigger? And that this is commander needing to like, well, let's look at how we can just tweak.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not a pervasive problem, but I see it as a problem where the card should work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And just a kind of like, you know, a commander format.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That aspect of the way commanders change zones is preventing the card from working.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so it seems like an arbitrary dismantling of a card. I mean, question, let me ask you a question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have an Elendra as my commander, and you cast a destroy effect on her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Question. And we're playing a game of commanders. Two other people. Understood. Question. Did Elendra die? You destroyed her. It resolved. Right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But nevermind even the rules, the spirit of it, with no other things, and I go, it resolves, and it resolves, the creature has died.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? She's gonna go, I'm gonna redirect her to my command zone, but she died.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it sounds like you view a lot of your advice as being cautionary, as being like, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sure, well I think unintended consequences of a change is definitely a reason to be wary as well. What, what, how do we change this so it works and then what does that do in terms of changing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The next one's a pretty big one. It's the idea that commander damage should be removed entirely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because commander damage is a way where if your commander does


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over 20 points of damage, so 21 points of damage or, you know, go wild, uh, that, that person loses the game. And so it has been proposed that we need to get rid of commander damage. Why? Why?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This one really stupefies me. I mean, this is an integral part of the format, but I feel like all of these are integral parts of the format.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Winning with ten infecting commander is part of the charm of commander. Not being able to play hybrid cards is part of the charm of commander.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The only one I, uh, of everything we've discussed so far that I'm sympathetic to is the death triggers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why are there now some voices from some sources saying that commander damage should be eliminated?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The idea that it's too confusing boggles my mind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then the response, I've had this discussion on so many topics in Magic about like, like this fear of complexity. And then the answer is, well, you're an enfranchised, you know, like hardcore player and what we want, what about casuals coming into command or what about new play? Yeah. That was your first game ever and you played Voltron. Wasn't it Voltron?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Voltron decks are, are roughly maybe 20 to 25% of, of all commander decks. It's not like there's one commander and it's like this is the way this commander operates.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's, it's not like, well there's this one legendary and that legendary's name is Voltron, and Voltron-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By removing com- uh, commander damage and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't think, especially since 2019, now not in Commander, but 2019 was a year of big bans. And I don't think necessarily everyone realizes, or maybe they do more so now, just how devastating


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bands and changes, dramatic changes and upheavals can be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If there is a critical need for it, like a card that is just warp format warping.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if it's just because, well we want to set things right, we want to neaten things up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We want to, I don't even know what with, with commander damage, we want to simplify. That is, is a very bad excuse to essentially d-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With all of these changes, and we didn't touch on all of them, but with everything we've discussed here today and everything we haven't discussed here today, I think that more than anything else, you have to give some due consideration to the players who will be affected


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a lot of commander deck that's been sitting on my shelf for eight months.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've got a change that I don't think was mentioned, but I do know is one that there is a force pushing for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of the problems in calendar. Let's reduce the card pool. Let's reduce the card pool. So like it's maybe only the last two years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, it was like, took me probably like a week to decide. I was like, alright, let me do it. I want, I want in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Many Magic the Gathering players ask the question, what's it like to start Magic the Gathering through Commander? Can we even start playing this game just with the Commander format, only with the Commander format? And what is that like?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, to talk about this, I have invited the one, the only princess you may know her from, PBS, you may know her from the Mary Sue, you may know her from her own YouTube channel, but either way, she is a commander-only player and has come here to talk to us about what it's like entering


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, alright. So, you've been playing for one to two years now, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, wow, I remember when you started, and so now we're getting on three years. So, I-I wanna say right off the bat, like, I wrote a lot of, uh, talking points based off of this idea of the new player, but you're not really a new- at two, three years, is it even fair to say new player?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right. Well, I've got news for you. Uh, even at, at 10 years, 15 years plus, you're still always, especially in Commander, going to see those cards slam down and hit the table that you've never seen before. Sometimes even from recent sets where you're like, wait, that was a War of the Spark card? What?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, again, I got bad news for you. Even going, there's no point where you will ever feel that you've tested your decks enough. In fact, they just start to pile up and you just, you build them, they sit there, you get to play them, never enough testing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I, I feel like, like this is it. What you've got, this is, this is being a magic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What first got you into magic specifically? What was the thing that finally got you to sit down and play and get addicted to it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Given the time that you got into it, Commander, a lot more fun than Modern was, or perhaps still is. That's really cool though that it was actually YouTube.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, channel's out right now, and what a great way to see how fun and communal the game can be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you feel, Annie, you mentioned, you mentioned peeking in on Modern, I'm curious if you feel like there's any sort of draw or pressure towards other non-commander formats or what your perception of them is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that must've, if you tried that for modern, that probably had some difficulty.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right there, you've probably touched on one of the points that really does make Commander better, is that you can make that Princess deck, or that Fairy Tail deck, in Commander, and one of the things that a huge


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Section of the commander community loves doing isn't even necessarily making optimized decks, which another section loves to do, but just making flavor decks and theme decks and getting to play with it. And you can still sit down with three, four other people and have a long, engaging game where you might even have a shot at winning, even if it isn't a fully optimized deck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's, that's so funny too, because for the longest time in Magic, just draft and standard was really the gateway format, and it would be kind of unheard of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think, uh, just a few years ago, I guess that's right, right, when you, uh, started actually getting to, to play to,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Introduce a new player to anything other than, say, a basic standard game or a draft game or even just a casual 60 card kind of 1v1, and yet more and more people are


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, uh, uh, that Princess deck, although any deck you make, Princess, is a Princess deck, because you're Princess, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the law. Yes. It makes a lot of sense because players want to do that dragon deck, but maybe a dragon deck isn't gonna work in standard, but you could grab a lot of sheep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dragons and shove them in a deck in commander and become underestimated until that giant one manages to hit the ground and either win you the game or maybe help you take second place.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, that's definitely a big, appealing thing. Uh, I, I, I know that friend of the show, I don't think I'll get in trouble telling this story, but uh, Olivia Gilbert Hicks, also,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Got into magic through Commander first and only plays Commander and she has a story about telling that to Mark Rosewater and just seeing his face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's not his favorite format to say the least, but also because the idea to him that someone wouldn't be drafting, which is his favorite way to play and what excites him. And he's just like, oh, only commander. But no, it's, it's a, I think it's, it's just great in that way. And also I would imagine not really high pressure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Play your turn, take a breath, another three people go, you can ask questions, you can poke the bear, all that stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I, I think the flexibility in deck building, however you want to build that deck, is another one of commander's just great strengths. And it's, it's so funny how just even having this conversation, when I, when I outlined this and pitched this to you from my, this episode to you, my


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Perception was that I was going to have to be like, I was going to try and figure out through talking to you how it is that a new player is, is, is getting into magic so deeply just through


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're, you're, you're, this is my, my earlier question about at what point do you go from like new player to just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're complaining about cost. You're complaining about foils. You're complaining about the modern meta. Uh, uh, yeaah. Congratulations. I think I got the Magic Player card for you here. You're in. That's it. That's no new player. That's all there is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What about stuff like the, the, the pre-constructed commander decks or any other? Like do you, uh, it sounds like what you just described was buying singles, uh, which is, you know, usually definitely something I advise though, when you get up to those $90 ones. But do you also like ever pick up any of the pre-con products and which ones do you like? Have you bought one of the pre-con?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Commander decks over the last couple of years or, or, or booster packs. What are the sort of products that you do consume?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, alright, interesting, very interesting there. Uh, yeah, uh, uh, definitely buying all this, someone who has to buy at least one of every, uh, product that comes out in Magic, it certainly can start to clutter up your house there. I think going for the singles or just the occasional booster packs, certainly pre-release, is a good way to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What about things like Magic's lore and history or even just things like, like, not necessarily the story but just what has happened in Magic before? It's this game that's been around a quarter of a century now. I'm curious how aware, as someone who's two to three years into it,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you are of things like old famous tournaments, if you hear a read about, uh, uh, famous matches in magic history or, or when you see characters perhaps.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You mentioned already knowledge of, of, of powerful old cards. Do you follow the flavor texts sometimes? Have you gotten into the lore at all? Or what is your awareness of that old magic history?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you dove, that's old, that's old stuff. You dove right into the, when you say weatherlight, for some of our viewers at home, you're referring to the original.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Weather light, would say. Yeah. The new little set of stories they did in Dominaria, uh, that was not around her. That's really cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is really neat how magic has been around so long that they realistically can, can and do sometimes have things where you are encountering the children or the grandchildren in some cases of characters that used to be the focal point


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] of the game and while definitely a narrative storytelling, we can fast forward some years and things like that, that this game has been around so long that it's not at all, uh, uh, a huge fast forward to be encountering Cissé's descendants and, and, and such.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think it's really cool just to hear you say that yeah, you know, you're, you're a nerd and you do deep dives. That's what many nerds come in many different flavors, but a lot of nerds love to do. And I think wizards is often.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think sometimes, uh, uh, intimidated by their own history and they worry that new players might not be interested in nostalgic elements and yet here you are drawn to them and diving into them or even that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, just to hear you talk about Gaia's Cradle and Survival of the Fittest and, and on and on with some of the most powerful commander cards that there are that you had no problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Coming into the game through Commander, only experiencing it through Commander. Well, it sounds like Modern as well, and probably some other formats, but as your primary, and doing all that stuff, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, wizards need not be afraid of embracing its long and deep history.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Magic? We were working on a movie for about 10 years that never came to fruition, and now we're working on a Netflix series, probably for the next 10 years, that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] May or may not come to fruition, we'll see. But, uh, yeaah, we could use a little bit more in that realm, I think. We used to have a pretty rich story going, and that's in rocky times now as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think there's a problem, I, I don't, you're right, I don't know Star Wars. You asked, asked me a Star Wars question about your shirt before we started filming and I was like, what? Star Wars?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I, I don't, I don't know, I don't know Star Wars. I, I do know Star Trek though. And I do know Star Wars and Star Trek.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fans, we both feel like we may have been wronged by Mr. JJ Abrams depending on where you fall on that. But I do also know as part of those other fandoms that sometimes it's very easy for the places making that content to take.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Star Trek, Star Wars, Magic the Gathering, perhaps long-term fan for Granite as they'll show up no matter what and we have to worry a lot about that new person, that person who hasn't seen a Star War, who hasn't seen a Star Trek, who hasn't played Magic before and we don't want to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Inundate them with 25, or in the case of those other franchises, more than 25 years of history and lore and character and things and try and boil it down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've always been the opposite and I think just hearing you talk about magic and your interest and your behavior and, and interaction with it, you know, confirms my beliefs is that you can embrace that stuff and it can be a great asset in getting people hooked. Why shoot for the superficial when you could shoot for the deep?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No. Right, right. I used to teach, I used to teach that which I went into debt to learn. So there you go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Absolutely. Well, what about the reverse of that then? Uh, what have you found in terms of, uh, I don't know if we want to start with just Commander specifically, but is there anything about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You mentioned rotation, which is another thing I agree with you on, is that that's definitely off-putting for a lot of people, the idea that your cards


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You no longer can play with, uh, uh, what, what have you found to be perhaps off putting either about commander or other formats or, uh, uh, uh, not to your, to your liking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, absolutely, and I think one of the trademarks of a lot of commander players is that they build multiple decks and have multiple decks handy. I don't know how many commander decks would you say?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You are confirming all of my biases during this, this, uh, uh, episode. Because there you go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so, you're absolutely right, in Modern and Standard, you're gonna sit down and you've got the meta, and it's gonna be maybe in this Standard season, everybody is playing, I don't know, control decks. And so everybody you sit down across from and get paired up with,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, nine out of every ten of them have got that top control deck and that's what you're playing against and you've got your one deck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But with commander you sit down and I know with my playgroup everyone does have four, five, six, seven, eight or more decks. You get one game in and maybe I've got a control deck and she's got an aggro deck and then we finish that game and then she's going to take out a completely different deck and he's going to take out a completely different deck and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because you want to play your different decks, and so you get so much more variety, and no two games end up being the same, whereas in Modern, yea, actually, I sit down, and I'm like, alright, who am I up against? Alright, it's this matchup, I know what to do in that matchup, and again, that's part of the appeal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] of that is that consistency and working within that, like, like, it's like solving a Rubik's Cube puzzle. I know the colors, I know the turn it, okay, merfolk, burn, storm, whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I absolutely least see that about Commander. Uh, uh, is there anything in Commander though that you find to be perhaps unappealing or, or, uh, uh, uh, uh, less optimal or things that you might like to see improved upon? Maybe they're not terrible, but like there's, there's room for expansion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those sweet, sweet tears. Those sweet, sweet tears. Yeaah. There's that aspect too. I mean, some of my most popular commander videos are when I say this is an awful, as in cruel or evil deck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And everyone just wants to tune in and say, that's horrible. That's the disgusting way to play. I can't wait to build it. You know, uh, because there, there is a certain joy. I think as long as you dial it back and only do that every now and then, uh, or again, or your play group, that's what they're all about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, uh, certainly, certainly. How do you compare, then, Magic the Gathering, uh, so, as someone


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who is, you know, no stranger to many different spheres.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What do you make of the Magic the Gathering sphere? And I wonder if I should say, like, culture of magic or just the vibe, perhaps, of magic. How do you compare it to the other spheres of nerddom that you're a part of?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Blue is no longer a color. Not gonna, I don't know, you might make a few enemies with that one. But, uh, for those who want to hear more, because you did a really awesome, you referenced it, and I think I did at the beginning, but if I didn't, uh, I will definitely include links to a video where you had a really extensive and really excellent


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, in depth talk about this and related issues on your own personal channel. Uh, so that will be available in the description to anyone who did not yet see that and wants to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Princess, thank you so much for coming here today. Uh, before you go, is there any final thought you have just about magic as a commander, as a gateway to new players playing magic? If you had a friend


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who wanted to start playing magic through commander? What would you say to them or what would you guide them towards?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, absolutely. Fun tribes. Tribes is such an appealing part of Commander. You could even maybe introduce brand new perspective players by the Merfolk tribe. You know, awesome fish, fish, uh, uh, uh, Merfolk and a Merfolk Commander deck maybe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I like merfolk, don't you? You don't think a new player, a new player would wanna, wanna maybe get excited about magic through merfolk?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So what you're saying is that the commander should take an already good card and make it better rather than a card that is dead without the commander that will then be able to do something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello! Many Magic the Gathering players, or many Commander players specifically, have a problem with what's known as the Commander Arms Race. What is it? How can you stop it? Can it even be stopped? Or, or, just maybe, should it be embraced?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're gonna discuss all of these topics and more today. I have with me Dave Cosen, a columnist for Cool Stuff Inc.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Personal trainer extraordinaire and all-around commander, Afexionado, who has many opinions, all of them strong, about the arms race that so often takes place in Commander. Dave, thank you so much for being here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, it's a pleasure to have you. Let's just start for the two people who play commander and have not already been subjugated to this horrible thing that starts to happen in playgroups, which is the arms race. Let's just start by talking about what is it. What do we mean when I say the command are already people are


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, but why is that a problem? So, so somebody who said better removal or better ramp, we've, we've got, let's probably a new commander product or maybe a draft set comes out and wow, that's a better removal, strictly better. Uh, I'm going to swap out one card from my deck to swap in a better card into my deck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What is the problem with that? What is this ripple effect that that starts to have?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey now, Crawl Worm was amazing and I will hear nothing about Crawl Worm or Sheevan Dragon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right. I think pressure is an often overlooked aspect of the arms race because people often feel targeted by the arms race that the new sets or the new cards


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or even just some of the older, more expensive, busted cards that they won't do strictly better versions of, that whatever the source of those better cards is, is that people feel, oh man,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This person in my playgroup is just suping up, ramping up their deck, and in order to keep up with it, I have to do this. But I also feel this huge pressure. One of the things I initially loved about Commander was the fact that even though new cards were always coming out in so many sources, I could build a Commander deck and stick it on my shelf.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One year or even two years later, still take it down off the shelf and play with it without having made major changes to it. And then what started to happen all of a sudden was people would say, wow, you're not running X.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I would say, oh yeah, X is good. And they go, well, it's not just good. You're running, you know, Z here and, and X is one less than Z and does the exact, it's literally just Z, but for one less mana.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why are you not running it when then, oh wow, look at all of these cards that need to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Update is like, oh, how embarrassing. I haven't, you know, like put in the new, the new ramp spell, the new removal spell. That's just a strictly better version of this or the same version, but with an upside or whatever the thing is. And so it's not just fear of getting trounced at the table, but looking like I've got this archaic out of date deck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They don't say that. That was the voice in my head. Correct. That also comments on my physical appearance when I look in the mirror and things like that. That's a whole other story.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I keep, I keep saying what, so I really was dreading what was going to happen in Commander Legends and I was so happy that my fears were, were, were not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything was going to be like that in Commander Legends, and it turned out, no! It is a really fun looking set, and I think they did a wonderful job. I am worried about that idea of what comes next, and one of the things I keep waiting for is when they're going to make, like, Commander Legends 2. Well, we did all the partners.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Commander Legends, what's next? How do we get? We gotta, it's losing its sparkle. I know we're gonna have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Three Legendary Partners. So that you can have three legendary creatures in your command zone. It's gonna be the Sentriplets.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But we're gonna name them and each one gets a name finally and then they are gonna each have their own individual card and they'll partner with each other so that it's balanced like one card and it's just gonna be this gimmick in a snow


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, because you do have, speaking of pressure, I think Wizards feels a pressure that we have to keep wowing them with something new and with so much product coming out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I do have my eye on that guy's cradle. And I save up my money. And you know, people spend, do you know how much a set of golf clubs costs? Do you know how much like, like if, if we were in the before times where we could go out to the movies, if I liked going out, not to matinee,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shows, but to, you know, the premium shows and I do want to buy popcorn and hot dogs. I mean, that's like, you know, bring the family. Nothing wrong with going out to a movie every week, but that can add up. And maybe for me, my hobby, Magic the Gathering, my love, Commander, I'm eyeing that guy's cradle. It's Christmas time. I had a good year at work. I've saved up my money. I don't buy golf clubs, things like that. And is it wrong of me to show up?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I have in my elf ball deck, uh, uh, been like, guess what I got? It's my guy's cradle. And, and there's a lot of people out there that I think recoil at that. We start even getting accusations of pay to win. Is that pay to win? Is that fair of me to say the card's legal in the format?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I bought the card that's legal in the format with my money, that this is my hobby, what's wrong with me doing that? Is there something wrong with me buying that guy's cradle?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that there's that great contradiction because we do want commander to be...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The format where we express our personality in our deck building right on down. I mean, I love it. I'm all about that. I need to make sure that the basic lands in my commander deck are from the plane as my commander and match. That's big for me. Uh, and, and I need to make other flourishes. Like I will have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with me getting that guy as Cradle, looking back, and I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with me playing Tevish Zat. I actually, well Tevish Zat I don't think is by itself in isolation broken, it's more pushing us in that direction towards a style of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] competitive play. And a lot of the people at Wizards of the Coast who are designing these cards


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's go ahead and design some cards. Sure. Let me look at what commander is. Oh, it doesn't have this. It doesn't have this. What about stealing your opponent's, you know, uh, commander? That's a powerful effect. And do we really need that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What is wrong though with being competitive in commander without hitting the CEDH level? Isn't this a puzzle for me to solve? I have the cards I own, the cards that are coming out, I'm looking at them, and I'm just wanting to put together, am I, why shouldn't I play a fully optimized


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Deck and bring a fully optimized deck in to my playgroup.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a game, right? I'm playing to win. When I play Monopoly I don't, I don't choose not to buy a property because it would just make me winning the game too easy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That sounds to me then, that you don't have a problem with necessarily


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An arms race because you're simply defining.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Types of gameplay or types of cards and card effects that you consider to be unfun and so it's not so much I'm upgrading to better ramp or better removal that you, uh, objected to at all there, but rather just styles of play.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you said steal your commander, win in, in just a couple turns, uh, that's part of the problem with Jeweled Lotus is, is 9 times out of 10, it doesn't do anything, but the one time it does do something, it's, it's not fun. It does a lot. And, and it's not fun, but how do we define that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, what if I said I think it's hilarious that I'm gonna steal your commander? What if I said I feel that something that is unfun about commander is that there's no way to ever stop anybody's commander and, and that having the ability to say, ah, guess what, I've turned off


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your commander, now you have to play with the other 99 cards in your deck instead of just relying on this can always get it back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, the tuck rule change, for those who are unfamiliar with that, that you used to be able to do a trick, which is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tuck or shuffle, uh, a person's commander into the deck without them having the ability to redirect it to the command zone. And that created an arms race of everybody felt the need to put in cards that had tuck effects if they could.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is why I thought it was good, but I thought that was good. That was what white did. And people at the time were saying, we need tuck effects in other colors. And they ended up saying, no, we're going to change the rules so that you can't tuck someone's commander. And then Oubliec came out and now Oubliec can stop your commander from returning to the command zone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, yeaah, yeaah. No one ever talks about OOBLY yet. But that's all ARMS, but that was ARMS race with the Tuck effects as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who defines that and, and, and, and how do I know then that it's the difference between upgrading and, and, and Tevish Zat and this seems like, like you're defining my fun. I want to play Tevish Zat. They came out with Tevish Zat. It looks cool. It's flavorful. It isn't overpowered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That I look at Chulane, and it's a flavorful card. It's not an I win card. I did make reference to Chulane as an example of a card that I personally might consider too powerful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, uh, uh, for Commander despite not being banned, but I'm, I'm just trying to, you know, like, like see that other side of the vantage point, and, and it just seems like, well, you're the one choosing to play Hot Daxos.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm choosing to play Chulane. If you're not having fun with Hot Daxos sitting down against Chulane, uh, uh, then it seems like that's on you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Again, it's like, well there you go, that, that, that- But that's on me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess the difference is that I'm not going to tell you, well then you should run, uh, Aetherworks or you should run Felidar Sovereign.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your position is telling me I shouldn't run, uh, Choolane or, or, uh, uh, Teversat, uh, or, or get that Cradle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm beginning to, the more I hear about the arms race issue, I almost feel like for a long time, even I have in previous episodes advocated keeping your deck at 70-80% optimized. I've advocated that, but as we go on,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess I kinda, my reaction to Wizards blowing the lid off of the format is to say, well, to hell with it. I'm just gonna get what I wanna get and do what I wanna do, and you get what you get and do what you wanna do, and it's not my fault that Wizards is making these cards, it's not my fault


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The older cards that are, are, are bonkers like this aren't banned. I mean, if Guy's Cradle isn't banned, then ban it, you know? Then if it's not banned, then let me buy it. And if I am so fortunate as to be able to afford it or to have been playing when it was just in four dollar packs and to have one in my, my binder and stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And to maybe just say, well, the arms race isn't on the players, it's on Wizards of the Coast. And if Wizards of the Coast does not...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Want to have the game become this degenerate arms race then they need to actually


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They can do both. I'm not saying wizards can't make money. They can make money, they will make money, but they need to actually watch what they're doing. We said we felt like they did watch what they were doing with Legends minus one or two little iffy things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I don't know, let's talk then within, I can't control what Wizards does, if God knows I've tried, but, but, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can't control the wind, by which I mean Wizards of the Coast. Why not yell at the wind? Uh, but, I've done that. I have a whole series where I do that. Gonna put that aside. Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean. Uh, let's talk about our playgroup. I'm in my playgroup, you're in the playgroup, you and I are in the playgroup.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In arms race, without you telling me, like, I look at Tulane, listen, I was an English major. Tulane's got books. I was a narrative, I was a fiction writer. I wrote novels and short stories. Tulane's the teller of tales. I'm, I'm old. Tulane's old. It's like, we got all this in common. He's in great colors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wanna run this card. Do I have to make the deck worse? Running it? What is this? How do we as players deal with that arms race then? What are we doing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's actually a really good point, which is I actually think that building, putting in cards to specifically hose a deck


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Someone in your playgroup uses is, is very problematic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where, where it's, it's simply like, well I've got a deck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that what we really need is more commander techs. I think that what you need is simply


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 commander decks in your library. And so if I've got my Chulane deck, you don't need to put anti-Chulane tech.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll, we'll not have to deal with it all the time. It's not gonna win every time. I get to have that deck however I want it, and we simply are just changing and rotating a lot, and we're not using the same decks up against each other. Okay, fine, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna see what this is like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just think having multiple decks, that's why one thing I even do, I mean I know it's a little easier for me because I have to review them, but I have a wide collection.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of just pre-constructed decks with zero changes in them, because it's, every now and then I just go, alright, here, it's that Inala Wizard's pre-con deck, it's not been optimized, it's not had any changes, maybe I swapped out a card or two, but that might be it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's just something different. And then you get a different experience. And, and that's very doable, especially since they're now releasing commander decks that are 20, $25 each.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Boy, that doesn't make it so that it's that cost prohibitive, uh, uh, as, as, you know, uh, it used to be. So I think that just having a lot of decks and playing with each other's decks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Communicating with the playgroup, obviously. You know, the solution to the arms race is much like the real arms races. Let's just not have it at all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We don't have to make rules saying you can't upgrade your deck, we don't have to make rules


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Saying you can't run these commanders, or you can't have the Stonehorn Dignitary, I don't care that you've got the Stonehorn Dignitary in there, cause that's one deck you have of ten, and I have ten, and we're just going around like this, like musical chairs, maybe one week, you'll take the deck with the Stonehorn combo and say, here, do you wanna give it a whirl? And I'll be like, you know what, I've never resolved that combo, I'm gonna try for that, that'll be fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think the other thing that I would suggest to any groups that are having trouble with an arms race or if you're just a lone person in your group feeling that there's an arms race going on and not


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not sure what to do about it or even how to talk to your playgroup. Obviously, talk to your playgroup is the rule zero in my book of commanders. Just talk to your playgroup and be reasonable and don't be jerks. But, failing that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shifting what the point of Commander Knight is or what the perceived way to win is can be very helpful, by which I mean, if you haven't already checked out, and I have a video on this, a point system.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Point systems are a great way to mix up commander gameplay because you're getting one point for winning a game, but there's all these other things you do during a game that get you points, and so it might, for example, say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Get five points. Uh, be the second to last person.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To lose, get three points. Win on turn three, lose two points. Go infinite, lose one point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can also customize those points. Now in my video I have a whole template.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so those different ways that you can change what it means to play and to win, Commander, can be great answers where then it doesn't matter that I've souped up my Tevesh Zat, Dakarol.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, that's a whole other, Popper Commander's a whole, that'll be a whole other video, but I think that also, you know, if you are doing the point system with your group, for example, you don't like the steal your commander effect of Teversat, I've got a Teversat, you can literally just, maybe there's a system you put into place where you get to nominate a new rule. Maybe if you win,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, uh, one season, then the thing is that you get to at least nominate a new rule to be added and you go, I want it to be negative one point for stealing a commander. That doesn't stop me from stealing a commander.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It, it adds an interesting element to the mix. At the end of the day, communicate with your group. I would worry, I would worry less about the arms race. I mean, we could sit here and go through, I think it would be absurd to go through a list and be like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, question. Putting Craterhoof Behemoth in your deck. Is this okay or not okay? Question. Putting, you know, the uh, exquisite blood combo in your deck. Is this okay or not okay? Putting Stonehorn Dignitary or Approach of the Second Son in every white deck. Uh, uh, is this okay? And it's, it's like, that's a silly way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think is more on wizards to be thinking about if they want to be printing those cards and putting that into the pool and the responsibility is on them. Us as players, the responsibility is to have fun and to not stifle another person's fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, in so doing and to find that and, and that's really the best solution to the arms race is making that your motto. And whether that means 70 to 80% optimized decks, whether that means not running a guy's cradle or not caring.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You've got a guy's cradle? No problem, I've got a ghost quarter. It's just, it's like BOOM.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that's fantastic. Well Dave, thank you so much for joining us here today. If people want to find more from you, uh, of course we'll have links in this video's description, but where can people find you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Seven mana and on blue, you're gonna absolutely get Cyclonic Rifted until they eventually ban it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's how I would put it. Speaking of sports radio discussion, here's a fun one that's going to put you on the spot. Jordan Spieth. You believe in his Masters chances or do you not based on his T10 finish at the Valero Texas Open?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So all of a sudden now it does matter what happens in Texas? Make up your mind!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would put him probably at the bottom of the second tier or at the very top of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of the third tier. I mean, I, I like a player who's making a ton of birdies, which is what Jordan Spieth is doing. And he made, I think, 19 birdies and an eagle over four days at the Valero Texas Open.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did he make a ton of mistakes? Absolutely. He made 11 bogeys, he made two doubles. Like that's, that's, it's just way too sloppy and untidy. But when you get to a golf course, like Augusta National, that he does know where the misses are, where he can rely on his short game, which has been, uh, stellar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In 2024, he can rely on the Potter, which he really couldn't over the past couple of years as he was trying to build that back up to 2017 levels. Uh, I actually really liked Jordan Spieth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This week at the Masters. Do I think he's playing well enough to overtake Scottie Shelfler? No, Scottie Shelfler is still my pick to win the Masters. I think he could win by a handful of shots, but I would be very surprised based on the way that Jordan Spieth is playing right now and based on his course history, if Jordan Spieth was not at least very much in the picture on the weekend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it's actually encouraging on a couple of levels. I think both of us sort of had the same take following Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA Tours press conference earlier this week, that I didn't feel like we were any closer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To a deal then we were on June 6th he just didn't sound I mean obviously he couldn't say much but what he was able to say wasn't very encouraging actually read this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As an encouraging sign, because I go back to the conversation you and I had last week about the idea and Webb had told me at Bay Hill that we probably should have met, meeting the player directors, the six player directors with the Saudis by now.