<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thassa&#039;s Oracle" href="#" target="_blank">Thassa&#039;s Oracle</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by <a href="http://jesperejsing.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jesper Ejsing</a></em></p>
<p>A little over a week ago, cEDH had the biggest tournament in the format's history. With a showing of 514 competitors, a prize pool of $20,000, and enough round of gameplay to cover a convention hall for two days, the Steel City Spectacular truly lived up to its name and was, well, spectacular.</p>
<p>So, what can we take away from the event? Let's dig in.</p>
<h2>Competitive Commander Is Booming</h2>
<p>First off, let's get the obvious out of the way - cEDH has a lot of momentum right now. Tournaments are being run at record numbers globally, the number of players in those tournaments is skyrocketing, and community engagement is through the roof.</p>
<p>All in all, if the Steel City Spectacular proved anything, it's that cEDH isn't just the niche highest-power bracket of Commander; it's a thriving community of eager players all brewing, playtesting, and competing the world over.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tempt with Discovery"></div></div>
<p>This momentum matters for two key reasons. First off, despite being recognized by <em>Wizards of the Coast </em>thanks to <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/wotc-introduces-new-bracket-system-for-edh" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the new bracket system</a>, cEDH isn't a <em>Wizards</em>-sponsored format. There is no cEDH Pro Tour, nor are there cEDH precons.</p>
<p>Sure, the ever-increasing complexity and power level of <em>Magic</em> cards in a world where nearly everything has a designed-for-Commander component necessarily means that more things will bleed into cEDH, but that isn't the same as direct support. As such, players and independent tournament organizers have to pick up the slack - a hefty ask given the price of organizing events.</p>
<p>So, to see events routinely fire with one, five, and now twenty-thousand dollar payouts doesn't just mean the format is limping along; it means that an institution is being built to keep it thriving and growing.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Command Tower"></div></div>
<p>Secondly, this momentum matters because of another key hurdle for the format: the cost of playing. For most Commander decks, the price of the deck comes from the bling that players and collectors add as flourishes for their favorites. Masterpieces, Serialized cards, etc - these make up the foundations of Commander's costliest decks.</p>
<p>While such cards are similarly commonplace in cEDH, they serve to raise the prices on decks that already have incredibly high floors. If you're playing Blue Farm, for example, you need six dual lands - that's a couple thousand dollars right there, and you still have 94 cards left to go. If you're playing RogSi, then there's a good chance you'll want to play <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Timetwister" href="#" target="_blank">Timetwister</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and that's a $4,000 card on its own.</p>
<p>So, what's the format supposed to do? Stay small, mostly online, and (hopefully) dedicated, like Vintage? Or is it to risk falling by the wayside, like <em>Wizards</em>' recent treatment of Legacy these past few years? Well, as we all saw succeed in stellar fashion in Pittsburg earlier this month (the host of Steel City Spectacular), the answer is clear: embrace proxies.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Timetwister"></div></div>
<p>Commander has long had a bit of a tussle with proxies. For some, proxies made perfect sense for the casual format. For others, the price of cards helped keep power levels in check.</p>
<p>Well, given the power level agreement inherent to playing in a competitive format, cEDH never needed to worry about the scaling issues which are implicated by opening the floodgates on everyone having every card.</p>
<p>Rather, by granting everyone access regardless of wallet heft, the competitive arena has been made all the more equal, incentivizing the vast participation needed to keep a community-run format going - especially one with decks that can easily eclipse $5,000.</p>
<h2>Draws Are a Problem</h2>
<p>Competitive Commander isn't all sunshine and rainbows, however. While the format may be bustling with players eager to play in tournaments, there is still one pretty immediate structural flaw with how cEDH tournaments are run, and yet no one has quite settled on a fix for it yet. Simply put, draws are too common in cEDH, and the tournament experience is suffering because of it.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Celestial Convergence"></div></div>
<p>By and large, cEDH tournaments (outside of Japan) use the following point breakdown:</p>
<ul>
<li>A win is five points,</li>
<li>A draw is one point,</li>
<li>And a loss is zero points.</li>
</ul>
<p>While this makes intuitive sense, the implementation of this structure really starts to break down when the political aspect of playing cEDH is brought into picture. Here's an example:</p>
<ul>
<li>Player A is the active player, and has already resolved a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thassa&#039;s Oracle" href="#" target="_blank">Thassa&#039;s Oracle</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. With the enters-trigger on the stack, they hold priority and cast <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Demonic Consultation" href="#" target="_blank">Demonic Consultation</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</li>
<li>Players B passes priority on <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Demonic Consultation" href="#" target="_blank">Demonic Consultation</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</li>
<li>Player C casts <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Borne Upon a Wind" href="#" target="_blank">Borne Upon a Wind</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, a spell that signals their intent to win the game before the Thassa's Oracle trigger resolves.</li>
<li>Player D reveals to the table that they have a single piece of interaction - a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Force of Negation" href="#" target="_blank">Force of Negation</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. This causes the table to pause for a moment, as Player D offers a draw.</li>
<li>If they counter the Borne Upon a Wind, then player A wins due to the Thassa's Oracle combo. If they don't, then player C likely wins on top of the Thassa's Oracle combo. As such, Player D is in a king-making scenario and can decide who wins the game. In either case, Player D would leave the game with zero points, rather than the one which they'd receive from a draw.</li>
</ul>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Borne Upon a Wind"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Valley Floodcaller"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="High Fae Trickster"></div></div>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>The sirens of a play-to-time format.</em></p>
<p>Given the current structure of one-point draws, many games which would otherwise end in a declared victor are either being ended by mutual agreement, or because the games go to time. Commander games can last a while, especially with <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rhystic Study" href="#" target="_blank">Rhystic Study</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and talkative players roaming around just about every pod, and this has led to many games ending either prematurely and/or without satisfaction.</p>
<p>In our earlier example, if the game were a zero-point draw structure, then the likely outcome would've been that the Borne Upon a Wind was allowed to resolve, as - despite being a likely win - it nonetheless was not a prima-facie guaranteed win (as compared to the immediately observable defeat at the hands of Thassa's Oracle).</p>
<h2>There's Plenty of Room to Brew</h2>
<p>Finally, let's talk about the decks that were played. But first, a look back at where we came from.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards side-by-side"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Etali, Primal Conqueror"></div></div>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>The championship deck - not a blue pip in sight.</em></p>
<p>Just about a year ago, Commander saw the biggest shakeup in recent memory: <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dockside Extortionist" href="#" target="_blank">Dockside Extortionist</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Jeweled Lotus" href="#" target="_blank">Jeweled Lotus</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mana Crypt" href="#" target="_blank">Mana Crypt</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Nadu, Winged Wisdom" href="#" target="_blank">Nadu, Winged Wisdom</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> were all banned.</p>
<p>While Nadu had already established itself as a premier cEDH deck, it had only been around for a little while and as such its sudden banning felt like just a blip on the history of the format - a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment. The other three, meanwhile, were universal cards in cEDH. Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus supported a plethora of commander-dependent strategies, and Dockside Extortionist was the go-to game ender for a bevy of non-blue decks.</p>
<p>Love these cards or hate them, they defined cEDH.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Dockside Extortionist"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Mana Crypt"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Jeweled Lotus"></div></div>
<p>When they vanished in an instant, it was natural for players to panic. All eyes turned to the partner pair <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh" href="#" target="_blank">Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Silas Renn, Seeker Adept" href="#" target="_blank">Silas Renn, Seeker Adept</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> as the next tier-zero boogeyman of the format. The deck was fast, didn't need Jeweled Lotus, and was far less reliant on Dockside Extortionist than most other red decks in the format. So, why wouldn't it be the best of the best?</p>
<p>Well, time heals all wounds, and I'm more than happy to say that - a little under a year later - RogSi was not the only deck at the Steel City Spectacular. In fact, there was only one player piloting the deck in the format's top 16.</p>
<p>Rather, the partner-pair of <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tymna the Weaver" href="#" target="_blank">Tymna the Weaver</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kraum, Ludevic&#039;s Opus" href="#" target="_blank">Kraum, Ludevic&#039;s Opus</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> (Blue Farm) had the most players - four - piloting it in the top 16. Looking at the rest of the entrants - including the rest of the top 16 - and we see an incredibly diverse meta full of pet decks and experiments.</p>
<p>Of the top 16 decks at the Steel City Spectacular, there were thirteen unique entrants. Other than the aforementioned Blue Farm, no one deck had a repeat among the finalists or semi-finalists. There are, of course, plenty of common cards and colors across decks - I won't lie and say that Rhystic Study didn't play a big role in the tournament overall - but the tournament certainly wasn't homogenous.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Rhystic Study"></div></div>
<h2>Wrap Up</h2>
<p>Competitive Commander has its fair share of rough edges. Blue Farm is heads and shoulders above the rest of the meta, Rhystic Study is a problematic card, and the tournament structure is still in its relative infancy.</p>
<p>Despite all this, though, more players than ever are showing up to tournaments, eager to play in the competitive environment, all while being able to play decks that are uniquely theirs.</p>
<h3>More cEDH:</h3>
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cEDH - The 2025 State of the Format

<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Test of Endurance" href="#" target="_blank">Test of Endurance</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by <a href="https://www.artstation.com/denmanrooke" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Denman Rooke</a></em></p>
<p>Competitive Commander tournaments can be daunting affairs, both for new players and battle-tested veterans. A single all-or-nothing match, triple the number of opponents, all intertwined with a wholly unique political element.</p>
<p>So, how can we make sure to bring our A-game, time after time? Here are five ways to get an edge, before the match begins.</p>
<h2>Track Your Games</h2>
<p>I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that, if you're playing in a cEDH tournament, you've probably had some experience with the format before. Kitchen table cEDH, game night at the local game store, anywhere and anyway doesn't matter, as long as everyone is playing with a competitive mindset and a high-powered list.</p>
<p>So, with that assumption out of the way, let's start with the most important thing you can do for tournament (and long-term) player improvement: track your games.</p>
<p>Keeping a sheet handy that lists your average win turn, standout cards from games (both best and worst performing), and most detrimental cards from opponents can provide crucial insights into how your deck plays.</p>
<p>cEDH is in a slower meta overall right now, but that doesn't mean that your deck necessarily reflects that. Maybe the newest set made it a turn faster, or it did nothing at all. That pet card you added a few months ago? Maybe you never end up casting it, despite loving it to bits.</p>
<p>Spreadsheets have a tendency of revealing hidden information in a brutalist fashion, exactly the kind which will benefit any players with tournament aspirations.</p>
<h2>Study the Tournament Structure</h2>
<p>Since cEDH tournaments aren't official <em>Wizards of the Coast</em>-sanctioned events (by-and-large), the individual structure of each event varies wildly. The average tournament structure usually centers around a series of timed, pre-cutoff best-of-one matches, with a number of rounds being determined by player count.</p>
<p>After these conclude, the players with the best records are invited for semifinals, which are untimed and single elimination. The top four pod is singularly structured: an untimed, single match.</p>
<p>Importantly, however, there is plenty of room for variability in this structure. For example, are draws worth any match points, or are they functionally identical to losing? What about the length of a game - eighty minutes, plus an untimed final turn? Or is the last turn timed, too?</p>
<p>These individual details can provide valuable insights into what kinds of decks - and what playstyles - will walk into the tournament with a hidden edge.</p>
<p>If draws are worthless and the final turn is timed, for instance, then turbo decks start off with a structural advantage. Slower decks might not have enough time to really get their positions cemented, providing faster pilots with every incentive to play full-throttle. In less time-crunched environments, such as those with untimed extra turns and/or rounds lasting longer than an hour, midrange decks are presented with ample flexibility to play slow and reactive.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Divine Intervention"></div></div>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>If this resolves, do I get one point or none?</em></p>
<p>Fortunately, just about any-and-every well advertised cEDH tournament will post their structure well in advance. By reading up on this information, you'll not just be clued into something as simple as "How long will this take?" but the hidden edge of individual strategies, as well.</p>
<p>It's also worth noting one piece of general rules documentation that's becoming more and more universal across cEDH tournaments: the competitive rules addendum (linked <a href="https://topdeck.gg/mtr-ipg-addendum" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>). Currently hosted by the tournament organizer TopDeck, this document has become uniquely popular with tournament organizers (regardless of whether or not TopDeck's software is being used to run the tournament). As such, reading up on it is well worth the time.</p>
<h2>Follow Meta Lists</h2>
<p>Unlike 1v1 competitive <em>Magic</em>, cEDH's multiplayer format significantly complicates the ability to predict how any one deck will interact against another.</p>
<p>As such, attempting to understand your deck's matchup against a another deck is a largely futile task. A game of cEDH is a complex phenomenon which is emergent from the interactions of each deck with each other deck at the table, rather than the sum of each individual 1v1 matchup.</p>
<p>So, how do we deal with this conundrum? Learn how opposing decks work from the pilot's perspective.</p>
<p>The simplest way to start learning what another deck seeks to do is simply to look at its decklist. For many of cEDH's top contenders, the strategy is pretty self evident.</p>
<p>Blue Farm plays the best cards in a midrange fashion, then assembles a compact A+B win-con when the time is right. RogSi rams mana and card advantage as quickly as possible, seeking to spike the game before other players can get a footing. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy" href="#" target="_blank">Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> runs just about every efficient piece of mana in the format, dumps it all into some spooky creatures, and finds a way to get infinite mana after commanding the board.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ad Nauseam"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Seedborn Muse"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Rule of Law"></div></div>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Seeing these cards can immediately flag how a deck works.</em></p>
<p>cEDH is absolutely a diverse format, but that diversity is topped off by a small cohort of dominating decks. By reading through the stock lists and primers for tournament-winning decks, a savvy player (yes, that's you!) can sit down across from three other opponents, make a rough guess of what everyone is trying to do, and chart a course from there.</p>
<p>Don't concern yourself with understanding how your deck plays against those of your three opponents - try and focus on how you play <em>alongside. </em></p>
<h2>Stock Up on Supplies</h2>
<p>Commander decks are <em>massive</em>. Couple that with a long day of shuffling, and the odds are decent that a sleeve will split - or, at the very least, get nicked in a way that'll make it stand out against the rest of your deck. Bringing extra sleeves may sound like a mundane step, but - in the worst case scenario - it can save you from a tournament disqualification.</p>
<p>I once had to resleeve my entire deck with a new box of freshly-purchased sleeves in the 20 minutes before the first round because I forgot to bring extras of the same color I was already playing with. Don't be me; bring backups.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Stock Up"></div></div>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>This one was obvious.</em></p>
<p>Similarly, cEDH is also a format that's overflowing with information to keep track of. Cards revealed off of tutors, hands revealed off of <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gitaxian Probe" href="#" target="_blank">Gitaxian Probe</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> - the number of times an important bit of information gets revealed is just about as high as the number of game actions taken.</p>
<p>So, to take the most advantage of this, grab a pen and a notepad. Trying to retain a mental list of every card in every hidden zone is mentally taxing, to say the least, so cut yourself some slack and write down what matters. Losing the game to something that was revealed turns earlier but simply forgotten by the table doesn't just suck - it's preventable.</p>
<h2>Sleep and Eat Well</h2>
<p>Speaking of mentally taxing events, let's zoom out for a second and appreciate just how exhausting a day of cEDH can be. Even if you're staunchly opposed to the deal-making and info-sharing that is so common in multiplayer, the odds are pretty good that you'll be sucked into it somehow, even just as a hostage in the table's broader shenanigans.</p>
<p>Couple that with the regular mental toll of playing <em>Magic</em> for five or more hours, and it's easy to tire out.</p>
<p>Eating and sleeping well isn't just something that'll make you more comfortable or give you extra energy in the early rounds; rather, it's core to maintaining the ability to laser focus on the many details moving around the multiplayer environment. Writing down which cards were revealed is certainly helpful - otherwise I wouldn't recommend buying a notepad - but this skill is only as useful as your ability to first identify what cards are worth noting, as well as remembering to check your notes as the game goes on.</p>
<p>Similarly, going into a game well-rested and well-fed is conducive to reducing irritability, a crucial factor for cEDH's social element. Less sleep, more misplays, more frustration, more misplays, and the cycle continues.</p>
<p>Talking with the players in your pod is critical to proper threat assessment as the game goes on, and an irritable player is less likely to be welcomed into those conversations. So rest up, have a good breakfast, and play <em>Magic</em> comfortably - it'll earn you wins.</p>
<h2>Wrap Up</h2>
<p>Like most competitive ventures, preparing for a cEDH tournament means covering all your bases - strategic information, backup supplies, and personal health. Once you've got that trifecta down (to the best of your abilities), you'll be ready to bring your best to any and every tournament that faces you.</p>
<p>Good luck in your games, and don't forget to enjoy the competition!</p>
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cedh tournament

cEDH - The 2025 State of the Format

How To Prepare for a cEDH Tournament