In General: Commander Fantasy League Part 1

Hello and welcome back to In General. On Sundays, your old Grandpa Growth, discuss broader topics. Developing your skills, strategy, psychology, skill development, etc. Usually not specific cards or decks. Today I am going to be discussing a twist on Commander that can be used to add some spice to an established local metagame.

I like football. Not too unusual, although there are certainly some Magic players who couldn't possibly care any less about it. I also like fantasy football. It is a sad time of the year for me right now. Football season is still months away. So how do I cope with the boring days between sports seasons? By making a Commander Fantasy League, obviously! Some well established Commander playgroups will become large enough that it is helpful or necessary to create an extra set of rules to help regulate gameplay. One such idea is that of a Commander League. In a Commander League each Commander can only be used by one individual player. Players compete against each other 1-on-1 or in teams. Results are tracked and at the end of the league 'season' someone is declared a winner. Pretty basic. Here is the twist that I am offering:

Instead of just the Commander being unique to a deck, players will draft an entire 'team' of 10-15 cards (depending on the number of players in the league) and only they can use the cards that they drafted for their team. Only one person has Sol Ring. Only one person has Command Tower. Cards that don't get drafted may be used by any player (and any number of players) in the league. Let's break down some of the basic rules that make my idea tick:

Basic Rules:

The League - You will almost certainly want to have an even number of people in your league, as that will keep the scheduling process simple. Also, the more people you can pack in the better. Some good numbers are powers of two. I recommend 16 or 32 if you can assemble it. This will simplify the scheduling process which we will discuss in a moment. You will also need to mandate what the game and match structure will be, as well as deciding how many league games will be played each week. This determines how large the time commitment will be each week and will substantially effect participation levels. Hint: lower time commitment will increase involvement and reduce burnout. The length of the season matters as well, but it is easier to have a single pair of players play a make-up match next week than it is to have 32 competitors stay for another hour or more to play a third match in a given week. Finally, consider how someone will 'win' the season. Are there playoffs? Seeding? Here is my suggestion for a structure:

• One league match per week. Best 2 out of 3. No time limit. 
• Try to have them at a specified place and time so the league members can view and monitor other league matches. I recommend having at least one league player available to spectate each match and confirm the results.This let's you interact and build relationships within the playgroup as well.
• Competitive level rules enforcement. Have a judge handy for dispute resolution (as most shops will anyway). 
• Record the results of each match on a weekly report and the weekly progress in a accessible location like a spreadsheet, poster in the store, or a Google doc. 
• If you have 8 or fewer players: Use a 'Round Robin' style schedule where each participant plays one match against each other participant in the league. If you have more than 8 players, restrict the schedule to an 8 week season at most. This keeps things tight and fresh and will allow new players who are interested to join quickly while also drawing the season to a length where the drama can reach a fever pitch!
• If a player has to be absent, they should play a make up match following the same rules, keep in mind that there should still be at least one other member of league there to observe. Or just play the missing match at the next league meeting for simplicity. 
• Have an informational meeting before the league draft so that members can make any necessary decisions ahead of time such as: what the exact schedule and format will be. Creating a calendar to mark holidays potential bye weeks as well as get information about participants schedules in advance to avoid no shows and missed matches. What cards are banned, what is legal, etc. This will help orient new players and give a strong signal of what to expect.
• Once that meeting is completed and all the players are acquainted with the system, you will need to have a second meeting to determine a draft order. The schedule should be set at this point and should be available for viewing by the players. It is important to know who you are playing when before you draft so that you can really dig into your strategy. 
• Have the 'teams' of cards chosen by a draft. This ensure that the power is properly spread out among the players and that no one deck becomes too over-powered. There is an issue about card availability: Can I draft a card I don't own? How do you overcome the disparity in the size of two players' collections? These issues are tough, but I have a simple answer. Allow proxies in league games. This gives everyone an equal footing and lowers barriers to entry. I will discuss an alternative rule in next week's article that alleviates the need to rely on proxies. 
• Make the goal for winning the league clear. Two examples are most wins in the regular season or having a post season playoff tournament. Prizes optional, although I don't recommend straight up gambling. 
• Decide on a system for tie-breakers even if it seems unnecessary. This could also be used for playoff seeding or next season's draft order. I suggest the following hierarchy, to be applied in order: 

1. # of match wins
2. Head to head match result (if a match was played between the two tied players, the winner of that match wins the tie-breaker. If not, then continue.)
3. # of game losses (The player with fewer game losses, not to be confused with match losses, wins the tie-breaker. This means that winning a match 2-0 is much better than winning 2-1.)
4. Inverse draft order (Finally, if none of the above can break the tie, the player who chose later in the draft selection order simply wins the tie-breaker.)

• Have at least one, preferably more, person to serve as a league administrator. They will insure results are recorded and reported accurately. They will print up the schedule, draft, calendar, and team rosters. They will serve as the first point of contact for new members or problems within the league. This can be a lot of work, so I suggest sharing this responsibility or rotating it to a different participant each season. 
• This whole idea requires a lot of time and effort to organize. It is not unreasonable to think that some money will be necessary as well for shared supplies, space, and compensation for the administrators' time. Instituting a participation fee is reasonable as long as it is as low as possible. Keep in mind that money can be a significant barrier to entry for many people, especially younger players. 
• Speaking of fostering the young, this is about community. This whole idea of a league is about building that community. Creating friendships, educating and exposing players to new things, comparing strategies, and creating camaraderie. Don't let the institution overtake the fun. This should be helping, not hurting your community at all times. Never lose sight of this. 

The Schedule - Part of the reason to play in a dedicated league instead of just playing some random games against the other people in your local shop every weekend is to have a more rigid schedule. You'll want to set up a fixed schedule ahead of time; i.e. after the draft, but before any league games are played. This adds a new dimension to the competition because you will know exactly WHO you are playing against every week and WHAT they are playing. This allows you to metagame special tech for certain matchups. Or not! Keys to a good schedule are:

• Give time between league matches for players to update their decks. One match per week is sufficient to keep interest and build drama while still giving players time to think on strategy and source cards for next week's match.
• Two players shouldn't meet more than once during the 'regular season'. If you are having a 'post season' make it single elimination. 
• Make sure the complete schedule is available at all times AND before the draft, if possible. 
• Just like in Organized Play events, winners are responsible for reporting results, which should be kept public and current.
• Don't change the schedule once it is set. I don't recommend having a 'floating' schedule where the winners play last weeks winners or anything like that, except in a single elimination playoff scenario.

The Draft - This is the important part.

• Assign a draft order ahead of time using a random lottery. I don't recommend using reversed rankings (last place finisher picks first, winner picks last) to assign draft order because it can't account for participants joining or leaving the league.
• The draft should take place in the open and all league participants will need to be in attendence. Everyone gets to see what players are picking what in real time so that they can make informed strategy decisions. Using some kind of board to write things down will insure accuracy and help prevent two players from accidentally picking the same card multiple times.
• I recommend using a round-reverse order for picks. I.e. the pick order inverts every round as such: 1234 -> 4321 -> 1234. This is also known as a 'snake draft'.
• In the first round YOU MUST PICK YOUR commander. This is why I  recommend round-reverse over the standard round order. The person who has the last pick of commander will get the first crack at picking for his main deck and vice-versa for the player with the first pick.
• You CANNOT pick a basic land for your team, but any other card is fair game unless it has been banned or previously picked by a player. 

Construction - Basically what you would expect. Because of the 'team', and given that each player will need between 30-50% land in their deck, you should always know about at least half of what your opponent is playing, but that other half will be a constantly changing mystery!

• You must play all 15 of the cards on your team in your deck every week, period. You cannot change your Commander ever. The other 85 cards are up to you and can be any eligible card not on another player's team or banned. You can change these cards as many or as few times as you want, although not during a match. This will encourage two things, you should try and scout your opponent to get an idea of what he is playing so that you can tune your deck to beat them. Secondly, you should change your own deck often so that your opponents cannot easily metagame against you.
• Other than that, Standard Commander rules apply: only one copy of each card, no sideboards, exactly 99 card library, only one commander, your deck can only include cards that are within your commander's color identity and lands that produce those colors. 
• Before a league match is played you will want to check each participants decklist to make sure it is following these deck construction rules. This is something the judge and administrators can take care of. Just like in tournament play, if you suspect a participant's deck does not match his decklist or he is playing with a card that is on someone else's 'team' you can call for a deck check to be performed by the judge. That being said, come one guys. This is a casual commander league. Stop cheating at casual formats.

Thanks for reading guys! I hope this inspires you and gives you the tools to try out Commander Fantasy Draft in your own play groups. Next week I will follow up with some ideas on strategy and some optional rules to spice up any version of Commander League. If you have any experience or ideas pertaining to casual league play, feel free to leave a comment! Until next week, Zoners.
-GG