Like most long-time magic players I’ve had ups and downs with the game. I started playing when I was 14 or 15 (~1996) – my parents randomly bought me a starter kit of 4th edition for Christmas (with the leather bag and blue “life beads” for those who remember). I remember the biggest blunder of learning the game from the rulebook was that I thought you had to pay the casting cost of your creature to untap it. The bombs in my early collection were cards like colossus of sardia, sengir vampire, and personal incarnation.
And like most players I’ve quit and returned to the game multiple times. I’ve played semi-regularly at the U of O Wizard’s Tower, Utopia Games, and Entertainment Ink over the years (although my first ever draft was Legions at Fandom II). My heyday was kamigawa and ravnica – for whatever reason I loved kamigawa block even though I hated anime and most things Japanese. I’ve played pretty steadily now since Zendikar block.
I found out about the EDH format sometime around Zendikar. I didn’t have much of a collection at the time, but the format certainly had its appeal. Decks couldn’t be too slick being 100 card singletons, I’d only really ever need to buy 1 of any card and they’d never rotate, and most importantly it was meant to be a casual format so with a decent playgroup we could have fun without breaking the bank.
My first general was Sapling of Colfenor. I’ve had a love for green/black decks since my earliest magic days…I had a copy of the first issue of Inquest magazine, and the feature deck was a green/black “bayou lightning” deck that featured mana-elves, dark rituals, hypnotic spectres, juggernauts, giant growths, force of nature, sengir vampire, and howl from beyond. I spent a lot of time creating that deck as a kid – I even got my hands on one bayou!
Anyways, I had a great playgroup to start out with and the format was a hit. At peak I had about 16 decks, and was ordering cards online every week to fuel my latest idea for a general. Eventually the guys in my playgroup moved on to other things, but I managed to get my fiancée into the format and start up a new group, and now I’ve got a blog to post my latest insights and musings on the format and its cards. Hopefully some others find it interesting too!
To kick things off I’d like to share what I consider to be the golden rule of EDH:
Try to win without making anyone else miserable.
A good EDH player will always have this in mind when building a deck and playing games. If you want to win at all costs play another format ;p
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