An open letter to Wizards of the Coast

Dear Wizards of the Coast,

Let me first start off by kissing some ass and saying that I love your game. Everything about it. I love the social aspects, I love the different mechanics of the games which allow a different game every time it is played, and most of all, in the past year, I have loved the Elder Dragon Highlander format.

I believe that the Elder Dragon Highlander format (or Commander) is one of the most true forms of Magic the Gathering. The fact that the format only allows one of a card (other than basic lands) to be in a deck at a time, makes the game a bit more balanced. By only running 1x Kiki-Jiki, The Mirror Breaker and 1x Pestermite , you have a less of a chance of getting the two of them and going "infinite" on your opponents. I believe that the EDH/Commander format has been provided a sufficient banned list...up until now.  

Recently, you came out with a new method of offering invitations play in major tournaments, such as the Pro Tour. This new method that I speak of is the "Plainswalker Points System". Rather than spend my entire time writing about it, I will just have Evan Erwin explain it:

Through all the jargon, I was able to flesh out this fact: Your EDH/Commander leagues now count towards your Plainswalker Points. Correct me if I am wrong, but that would mean that EDH/Commander now falls under the Wizards of the Coasts jurisdiction of sanctioned formats in which you could qualify for major events. With that being said, I believe that Wizard of the Coasts needs to step in a take the reins as far as banned lists go for the format. What do I mean? One word:

Overhaul.

There are many, many, MANY cards and mechanics that need to be put under the microscope and need the sentence applied to them "Is this fair in this format? Does this make the format unfun? Is this card in the spirit of the game/format?" I think some serious examples need to be made:

1. The Infect mechanic.

Infect is a mechanic that is build for constructed, 60 card play. Infect was designed to be a win condition where if you could deal half of your opponents life in Infect counters, you win. Now take that same mechanic and apply it to EDH/Commander. Now, instead of requiring to deal half of your opponents starting life total, now you only need to deal a quarter of their life total in Infect damage. Where is that fair? Another way of looking at it is that in EDH/Commander, you can also kill your opponent with 21 points of "General Damage". However, it takes less than half of that to get there with Infect. Should we do away with Infect? Gods no. Infect is a great mechanic and being able to have alternate win conditions is part of what makes the game fun. I suggest the Infect rule be changed to 20 in the EDH/Commander format.

2. Gaea's Cradle

 This card needs to be seriously looked at. The only reason I say this is because Gaea's Cradle's younger, ADHD addled brother, Tolarian Academy, is already banned. If Tolarian Academy is banned, shouldn't Gaea's Cradle be banned for the same reason? Sure, Tolarian Academy is broken, but the reason why it is broken is because of cards like Metalworker (banned), the Moxes (banned) and other filthy artifacts. I personally play with Gaea's Cradle. Every time it hits the board, everyone and their mothers know that this card has to leave play as soon as possible or else very bad things will start happening. So, with Gaea's Cradle, it is a two way street. Either you ban this card because Tolarian Academy is banned, or you unban Tolarian Academy because this is unbanned.

3. Library of Alexandria

"Library is banned because it is expensive and potentially playable in every deck." Should this REALLY be a reason why this card is banned? I mean, seriously! Library of Alexandria is banned, however, Imperial Seal, a card I have seen been double the amount of Library of Alexandira is. If Imperial Seal wasn't a $200+ card, I would guarantee that black would see a lot more play in EDH, and it would be included. This is not a cry to ban Imperial Seal, this is just trying to shed light on the fact that banning a card, simply because it has a expensive secondary market, doesn't mean it should be banned. Library of Alexandria is great, but it also doesn't fit with the theme of EDH/Commander. More times than not, I have seen players have a goal of having as many cards in their hand at one time and allow themselves to have multiple choices and answers to what their opponents might do. 1 v 1, this card is pretty devastating, but again, that is where the Magic (pun absolutely intended) in this format lies. It would be 1 card in a 99 card deck that you would need to draw in your opening hand in order to make it useful.

So Wizards, you have released your EDH/Commander decks, you have released your From the Vaults: Legends, you have no made EDH/Commander a viable way of competing for a spot in your most prestigious tournaments, please, rethink your banned/restricted list and simply make this format the greatest that you have to offer.

Yours truly,

--Wilson Fisher