Elder Dragon Highlander, or EDH, has always been popular among casual players. EDH decks always have the biggest spells that would usually be too expensive to be useful in constructed formats. Now that Wizards is supporting the format, officially calling it Commander, they are adding 51 new cards that are not a part of standard Magic. These cards are made with casual play in mind and a lot of them support multiplayer games or plain old fun. Here are a few examples cool cards that will add a lot of fun to casual Magic.
Join Forces Cards – Join Forces is a new mechanic that is unique to the Commander set and is highly geared toward multiplayer Magic. These cards allow every player to come together to spend their extra mana for some powerful effects. I’ve noticed that a lot of these cards speed up the game, letting everyone get big effects if they can put in the mana for it. The coolest card of these is undoubtedly Collective Voyage. Most EDH games don’t have a whole lot happening on the first few turns because if anyone wanted to play cheap cards they could play a 60-card deck. This card lets everyone ramp up their mana to play the coolest cards in their deck.
The Vows – This cycle of cards is really something that can only be done in the casual format. These power up creatures but the enchanted creature can’t attack you. The Vows could be put on your creatures, but they would reach their full potential on other creatures in a multiplayer game. You can beef up another creature, which makes them want to attack with it, but they can’t attack you! With the vows on your opponent’s creatures you get a little bit of control over them and they will probably be attacking some other opponents.
Archangel of Strife – I like Archangel of Strife because it offers some simple choices: war or peace. Both choices give great bonuses that can wreck your opponent or make your creatures able to take a big beating. I’m not sure how useful the ability will be, but it players can make interesting choices to mix up the game a bit. In a game with 2 players, a card like this wouldn’t be nearly as fun. Even with 3 players there is probably someone that made the other choice and they can start playing differently once the Archangel hits the field.
Death by Dragons – This is a really fun card that allows you to pick on someone that is getting a pretty big lead. They won’t be feeling so hot when everyone else gets a 5/5 flying dragon to even the odds. The card works great in multiplayer games and should encourage players to attack the person without a 5/5 dragon available to block. Of course sometimes in games with spells this powerful, the lonely opponent without a dragon is probably capable of wiping the board clean. Either way, Death by Dragons is a great wake to shake up the game state.
Edric, Spymaster of Trest – Edric is a great new creature that adds some diplomacy to your games. As long as you have him on the field other players have a pretty big incentive to attack one of your opponents. While it does give other players cards, you do get some peace as they point they’re creatures at someone else. Of course Edric can also give you cards too for doing what you normally do and in a team game he is even better!
