“Oh great and powerful Orici, I come before you in search of the one true path of Origin. Grant to me the wisdom to know the only path to righteousness.”
~~ A Prior of the Ori, somewhere sometime, Stargate SG-1
Created by Adam Staley of Anchorage, Elder Dragon Highlander grew to toddler-hood there in Alaska. It developed some really in-depth rules in that time. However, Sheldon Menery, Gavin Dugan, and Duncan McGregor eventually got involved and developed the rules substantially further than before. Since that time, additional people have been added to the initial three members of the "Rules Committee" and we now have the rules that are loved and hated by thousands. When it was introduced to the masses by Sheldon Menery (in this article) it was more advanced than initially, yet still in it's infancy stages.
The format's goals are as follows:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gavin Dugan
Ideally we want it to be a format where everyone can play their best (you don't have to self-limit by building intentionally bad decks to let others be competitive), where the games are long and interactive, and where it's strategically correct to play a different set of cards than other formats... larger, more expensive, more powerful cards. It doesn't accomplish any of those perfectly, but it does a reasonable job of all three.
The main problem presented by the initial rules was the rule that stated that only one deck with a given general may exist in a person's local area (usually their State) at a given time. For example, in all of Colorado, there could only be one Rakdos the Defiler EDH deck according to the above rule. This could be a problem if a new player showed up to play a deck using a general one of the other players was already using. Who informs this new player that his "awesome" EDH deck can't be played due to it having a general that is already in use? This is particularly problematic for enemy-colored decks, since a deck is limited to the colors of its general, and there are only so many options for, say, blue/red.
This problem has essentially been solved by the new League rule that allows local shops to each be considered different "local areas" for the purposes of determining which generals can be played. However, the same problem appears when a new player shows up with a duplicate of another player's general. How do you resolve this problem? One answer is the "Open Play" Rule, which allows people to play with the same generals, at the expense of turning all of their other creatures essentially into legendaries whether they are legendary or not.
In addition to the general problem, in the very first form of EDH every card in the deck including basic lands would have been restricted to only one copy. This would present a problem to newer players who do not have the much more diverse mana bases of the older more experienced players, or to players who for one reason or another have sold a lot of their cards. To remedy this problem, mana bases have been expanded to allow basic lands to be duplicated within a given deck, however every other card except basic lands must be a single copy. This is where the 'Highlander' in the name of EDH comes from, as it is a reference to the movie Highlander where the famous tag-line was created “There can be only one!”
Originally, a general could only be removed from the game using effects you control. However, more recent rules have been implemented so that if a general would be placed into a graveyard from anywhere, as a replacement effect it may be removed from the game instead. If it is removed from the game, you can play it again simply by paying its mana cost + for each time it is replayed. However, if it were to be put into your hand, then it will be put into your hand. The benefit of this is that the additional mana that you would have payed to play it again if it had been removed from the game is essentially wiped clean.
Another one of the original rules was that in older EDH games, players started with 200 life divided by the number of players, rounded up. This means that if you have two players, you each start with 100 life. If you have three players, you each start with 67 life. If you have six players you each start with 34 life. If you have ten players you each start with 20 life. In more recent EDH games this total group life count has been changed, so that each player in a group automatically starts with 40 life. This is so that the players do not start with obscene amounts of life, and so the already long games of EDH do not last longer than is needed.
Another thing to note, which has always been the case, is that if an opponent's general deals 21 points of combat damage to you throughout the course of the game, you automatically lose the game. Damage from multiple generals is counted separately, though; each general must deal a total of 21 damage to kill a player. This is seen as an additional state-based effect. This type of damage cannot be healed, or undone in any way.
The original banned list for EDH included the five wishes and Test of Endurance. The current Banned List is quite a bit longer. However as this format is not sanctioned, local play groups are allowed to modify this list as they see fit. Ironically, one of the few cards that is actually banned in Vintage, Shahrazad is legal in EDH; despite it making the games obsessively long, it is still an incredibly fun card to play with.
Original EDH decks tended to use only the legendaries from the Legends set as their generals, and the general had to cost at least six. As such they were quite limited in how they were constructed. Additionally, a Legends Set general could not be a reprint from Chronicles or any black border blocks. This fact could potentially exclude certain players from the game depending on how expensive the legendaries in question got. Finally, your deck could not contain any other legendary from the Legends set other than the general at all. This last rule and the rule that generals must only be from the Legends set have both been changed.
Interview with Sheldon Menery:
How are you today?
I'm fantastic. If I were any better, I'd be illegal in 7 states.
What were your first impressions of EDH?
That it was a wacky, wild, interesting format in which crazy, big splashy things could happen.
Who was it that decided to allow people to have more than one copy of basic lands in their deck, and why?
I did. The first group that played regularly--my friends in Virginia--didn't have particularly large collections. I thought it would be more fair to use basic lands, which would also smooth out mana bases.
How did you decide to pick Arcades Sabboth as your initial general?
It was an original, and the weakest IMO of the five. Again, I started playing regularly with guys who didn't have collections like mine, so I tried to level the playing field a bit.
If you were given the option, would you allow people to use planeswalkers as generals?
Since I'm on the Rule Committee, I actually do have an option. My answer is no. Not ever. The thought had occured to me that people would ask, but I'm adamant that only legendary Creatures can qualify as generals. Genju of the Realm will not ever be a legal general on my watch.
That said, if you want to change things for your local play group, I fully support it. Make your own house rules. Enjoying the game is the important part.
Can you describe a little bit about the deck you played when you first created the format, such as what it's primary win condition was, how it intended to win if it couldn't find that win condition, etc...?
I think I was using the Palinchron/Mirari's Wake combo with Capsize. Other than that, it was just beatdown. I remain to this day a big fan of turning them sideways, and it shows in most of my decks. I like rabid aggression (like Darigaaz and Garza Zol). I just finished building a Kresh deck which is still aggressive, and I decided to try to always go with general Damage kills (although there are other kill conditions--like Vicious Shadows, which may be completely broken in EDH).
How would you feel if Wizards decided to provide major sanctioning to EDH events? How would that change the format's casual appeal?
There is already a split in the community. There will always be people who want to play for fun, but once you start offering prizes, people get serious. If the DCI were to sanction EDH, it would become as cutthroat as any other format. Our friends in France already have a thriving, competetive, 1v1 EDH community.
That said, EDH will never lose its casual appeal, because there will always be players (like me) who love the format as designed. I win an EDH game when wild, memorable things happen, regardless of who the last player standing is.
I'm really interested in pentagram EDH. It's a five-player variant where to win you have to eliminate the two people across from you (and you can't attack your allies).
Interview with Gavin Dugan, maintainer of the EDH rules site
How are you today?
I'm finishing my thesis these days, so kind of perpetually stressed out
What were your first impressions of EDH?
Actually, at first I was worried about the cost of playing but once I realized how much variety there is in EDH decks, and how many cards I could make productive use out for the first time, I got really excited.
How did you become involved with the EDH rules development?
When I first started playing EDH, there was no real "home" for EDH on the web. Sheldon's original articles had become the sort of de-facto official source, as the Alaskan website where the format started didn't reflect any recent updates to the format, such as Sheldon's suggested B&R cards, etc. Cari and I both started webpages the same week to host the official rules, but she took hers down and linked it to mine, so I sort of became the "torchholder" for the EDH rules. I loved the format, so I ran with it... I contacted other people who were leaders in the format, worked with them to get consensus on the goals and state of the format, and began updating them/posting them. After a year or so, the rules I posted had become the de facto official rules for EDH, and the forums I started at edh.truespace.ca (with the under-appreciated TigTigger providing hosting and site admin) had become the central hub for EDH community. We knew the format would benefit more from leadership and direction than it would lose, so we worked with the forum community on various websites to strike a balance between consensus and direction.
Who was your first general, and how did you decide to pick him / her?
Aside: Yay for him/her! As some people know, I'm a big proponent of usng the right gender pronouns to refer to legendary creatures... most creatures are "it" (aside from, say Sisters of the Flame), but Tsabo is a she, not a he
My first general was Azami, Lady of Scrolls. I had two 60 card highlander theme decks (mono-U wizards and BR zombies) deck before I discovered EDH... so when my girlfriend gave me a foil Azami, it was a natural progression to make it an EDH deck. Tsabo took control of the zombie horde shortly thereafter, although Lyzolda usurped her position in that clan a year or so later. Hrm... I'm noticing a pattern in my generals.
Can you describe a little bit about the first deck you played? What were it's primary win conditions, etc?
Usually, it won with an avalanche of card advantage... Azami + lots of wizards obviously, but also stuff like Riptide Lab recursion on Thalakos Seer et al, Stroke for 10, etc... the actual cards I'd use to win varied wildly (one of my favourite things about the format, from the get go)... Schwartz of Fire and Ice on the aforementioned Seer, Memnarch + Seedborn Muse (someone else's, natch), Capsize, etc. Really, the key to the deck (and many I play... which is both good and bad) is that it was a puzzle... 60-odd puzzlepieces which were powerful and useful, but no real "preordained combos".. I'd just try to figure out ways to work with what I had, which I love.
If you were given the choice, would you allow planeswalkers as generals?
Not a chance. planeswalkers are an orthogonal dimension to creatures and generals and players... from a flavour perspective, they give you allies which compliment your strategies and you can send to assist your general... mercenaries as compared to minions and champions. From a functionality perspective, they work very differently to creatures and would totally change the power dynamic. From a format perspective, they aren't numerous enough or evenly enough distributed over all colour subsets.
In the end, allowing them as generals would take away from their specialness. In the same vein though, an alternative I have tried is described here: http://edh.truespace.ca/EDH_Forum/vi...hp?p=7367#7367. It's pretty awesome
How would you feel if Wizards decided to provide major sanctioning for EDH?
They sort of have... EDH is a great format for "casual" events that you can run at stores with sanctioning, and prize support.
This of course leads to the discussion of EDH and prizes. This can get problematic... EDH is not designed (intentionally) to be a perfectly robust format in the face of twinks and spikes. We try to make it reasonably stable, but when you introduce prizes for last-man-standing, it's still a vintage format and can be quite broken... esp if it's multiplayer and collusion is allowed. Instead, I encourage TOs who are giving out prizes for EDH to award them equally for a variety of accomplishments... coolest play (decided by the table or the TO), highest life total, biggest attack, etc... in addition to last man standing. This idea was pioneered by Alex Kenny at the Sentry Box in Calgary, AB... and he showed that it works VERY well for engendering casual play while still giving incentives to players to sign up.
for each time it is replayed. However, if it were to be put into your hand, then it will be put into your hand. The benefit of this is that the additional mana that you would have payed to play it again if it had been removed from the game is essentially wiped clean.
