ISSUE 01 · JULY 2026 · 7 MIN READ
I won’t lie, I was pretty scared to start playing cEDH.
None of my friends plays it and I had always been told that it was an unfun format, way too tryhard, people weren’t friendly and games were so short that you barely had time to sit down before they were over.
They couldn’t have been more wrong.
IT WAS A BLAST.
Let me tell you why.
Before I finally got the courage to show up to a cEDH night, the most competitive version of Commander, I spent around two months reading Reddit, going through primers of different decks and trying to understand where I should even start. Online you’ll find people telling you to start with BlueFarm, others saying Etali, and others telling you to just pick a fringe commander that you like. In my head though,
I really didn’t want to start with BlueFarm (which is currently considered the best deck in the format). I wanted to start with something that would actually be fun to play.
I can’t even tell you how many PlayToWin and Wizards & Warlocks videos I watched. At one point I wanted to start with Kinnan, but I just didn’t like the artwork that much and, even though I really enjoy Simic, I dropped the idea almost immediately. Then I thought about Kefka because I liked the discard ETB, but everywhere I looked people kept saying that if I wanted to play Grixis I should just play RogSi. And I wanted a Tier 1 deck (or at least something close to it).
Every single night I changed my mind. I wanted a turbo deck, but I was scared of having too many different win lines to learn, so RogSi scared me. Then I thought about Sisay and playing more of a midrange strategy, but the idea of remembering exactly what card I had to tutor every single time was intimidating. I really liked Rograkh’s artwork and until the very last moment I thought I was going to start with him.
But after days of research, one sentence kept repeating in my head.
“That’s a chunky.”
So I picked Etali.
At that point I spent an entire week goldfishing on Moxfield, watching guides and trying to remember which cards mattered the most and how to reach my win conditions from all kinds of different opening hands.
I absolutely didn’t want to embarrass myself in case people at the LGS were really like everyone had described them.
The following week I finally went to my LGS, where there’s a pretty active cEDH group. In my head I was convinced it was going to be
a complete disaster and that everything my friends had told me would come true the moment I asked if I could join. Instead, they welcomed me right away and we ended up playing a bunch of games.
Expectation vs reality
I felt pretty confident because of all the studying I had done, but the truth is that cEDH is a completely different game compared to any other kind of Commander. The mulligan is basically three quarters of the game. Going down to two or three cards is often way better than keeping a mediocre seven-card hand. You also have to think about your seat position because that changes how good your opening hand actually is.
The interactions and the stack are by far my favorite part. I remember one of my first games where we had three Rhystic Studies and two Smothering Tithes on the battlefield while someone was trying to win. There must have been more than thirty different triggers, counterspells and interactions happening. At one point somebody even tried to win in response to someone else’s win attempt. It’s basically one giant puzzle that four people are trying to solve before anyone else does.
That’s easily my favorite part of the format.
That night I remember making some really aggressive mulligans. During the third game I was sitting in third seat. I looked at my opening seven. No way to cast Etali. Six. Five. Four. Three.
Finally I kept two cards and thought:
“If they counter one of these, I’m done.”
I asked the guy sitting next to me if it made any sense to keep that hand.
His answer was:
“That’s a really strong hand.”
That’s when I realized that switching from the B3 mindset to cEDH isn’t immediate, but eventually you get used to it. We ended up playing something like six games. I probably cast Etali three times. I lost every single game. But people kept helping me understand where I was making mistakes, when it made sense to interact and when I should have pushed for a win instead of waiting.
Just play
Don’t get fooled by everything I just said though. I knew almost nothing about the decks I was playing against and I kept asking questions all night. Everyone was incredibly kind and helpful. Most people who play the format genuinely want more people to discover it and enjoy it, because at the end of the day that just means having more people to play with.
Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Don’t be afraid of asking if your card can be played in a certain spot or if one line makes more sense than another. You’re not at a tournament. Have fun. Learn your deck.
Also remember that this is a completely different format from anything you’ve played before. You’re going to lose. A lot. And you need to be ready to keep losing for months.
I only won my very first game this week.
Pick a deck you actually like. Pick something you’ll have fun playing. Play to learn, not to win.
Two months ago I was scared to even sit down for my first cEDH game. Next month I’ll be playing my first tournament, and I’m pretty sure I’ll go 0–4. But I already know I’m going to have a lot of fun getting there.
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