There are tons of different formats in Magic: the Gathering. Standard, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, EDH, and more. Why so many?, some people ask, Why so popular?, others ask. Well today, I am going to answer these questions for you.
STANDARD Standard is in many places the most common format to play. Standard has the least amount of cards out of any format, which arguably makes it a more creative environment because of such limited resources. However, it is arguably also the least creative, as since so few cards are allowed, so few deck types are allowed, and thus to make a high-quality competitive deck many people "Netdeck", or find a pro-tour deck online and copy it exactly. In Standard, only two blocks and one or two core sets are legal at a time, depending on how long the most recent block has been legal for. Currently Theros, Return to Ravnica, and M14 core set are legal in standard. Standard is popular because it is the most common format found at FNM, and more people go to standard than other formats in many places, so thus more people want to go to Standard because more people go then. People also like Standard because they might not have many cards outside of Standard, and they would have a severe disadvantage at non-Standard tournaments, and Standard is one of the cheapest formats to play, as the most expensive Standard card fluctuates between 30-45 dollars on average, while in formats such as Legacy decks average 500+ dollars.
MODERN Many people like modern, as so many cards are allowed that many different decktypes are allowed and more cards are allowed so no two decks are the same. Modern, while commonly expensive with things such as Tarmorgyf,Liliana of the Veil, and the Fetchlands (which price at 30-60 dollars a piece) being staples for highly competitive decks, can be played competitively for under 100 dollars. In Modern, 8th edition sets and up are legal. This also makes Modern popular, as the era around Shards of Alara (2009) was when the most people started playing, and many people have more cards for modern then other formats.
EDH, ELDER DRAGON HIGHLANDER, COMMANDER EDH (Also referred to as Commander) is popular because all sets except for Unhinged, Alpha (the cards are considered "marks" because of their shape), and Unglued are legal. In Commander, players must have a deck of 100 cards, with no repeat cards. At the beginning of each game, each player removes one legendary creature in their deck to be their "commander", which can be cast at any time, with additional costs for each time played. Commander is common because of how diverse and unpredictable it is, as it is almost impossible to have a reliable starting hand each game (As you have a 1/99 chance of drawing one card each opening hand), and games are unpredictable because there is no way to be sure of what any player will do, even yourself, and many times games rely on a certain top-deck. Because of this, many people find EDH the most exiting format, and many people believe EDH is the easiest format to play casually.
CASUAL In Casual, all cards from all sets are legal, and players may play with whatever house rules they want. In Casual, no players have a real advantage, as many players play casual with friends who started at the same time. Casual is commonly preferred by people who don't like going to FNM or people who do not want to play competetively, because of a personal preference most often. Many times, people who don't like going to FNM (However, not everyone that prefers casual) just started playing recently.
LEGACY AND VINTAGELegacy and Vintage are almost exactly the same format. In both, all sets are legal, exept for Unhinged and Unglued. Many times, decks in either format cost 500+ dollars to play competitively, and games hinge on one card being played or not being played. Since all cards are legal, Legacy and Vintage are arguably the most creative formats, as decks are more versatile and one-of-a-kind than even EDH. The only major ways these two formats are different is the ban list- Vintage has a much longer banned list than Legacy, and also has a Restricted lost, while Legacy does not.
PAUPER Pauper, while not officially a decktype at FNM, is a deck comprised entirely of commons. This format is popular among people who do not want to play expensive decks, and normally players who play Pauper do not play Pauper decks competitively. Pauper decks are very cheap and rarely cost more than ten dollars, unless playing cards like older versions of Lightning Bolt. Pauper is commonly played on MTGO.
TRIBAL A Tribal deck is a deck that has all or most of it's creatures being one creature type. These decks require a lot of forethought, as they're restricted in the way that makes them vulnerable to non-Tribal decks.
On top of those restrictions, a Tribal deck needs to fit inside a particular format. The most difficult format for Tribal would be Commander, forcing the deck builder to have only one creature type, which in turn usually forces them to use only one colour. Most people like Tribal because of the flavor or abilities of one creature type, or just like the animal. (Ie my friend runs all wolves because hes always wanted a pet wolf) Tribal is the creature type and when a spell says 'Tribal- <creature type>, the effects apply to that creature type only. So of course a Tribal format is a deck that only uses one creature type and spells that affect them. A Tribal type spell is counted as that creature type while in play/on the stack without being permanents. So Tribal format is based around abusing one creature type and cards involving them.
There are so many different formats because players started playing at very different times, and WotC wants to give older players an environment where they can play with their old cards against players with cards as old as them. There are also different formats because, if all sets were legal at FNM, there would be only decks running all of the P9 and no decks would be very different, and players who do not want to spend much money would have an extreme disadvantage.
First article, what's everyone think? I didn't do much editing.
Quote from: Taysby on December 10, 2013, 03:55:45 PM
You can use alpha cards in commander if you have opaque sleeves.
Editing that then :D
If you spent half the time doing your hw instead of this you'd be acing everything!!
Lol obviously jk I really liked this +1 from me and hope to see more soon :D
Nice content. Your grammar and syntax need some work.
Thanks! And Bookmeister, yeah, I didn't do much editing.
If you want me to edit pm me the article and ill edit and send it back
Quote from: DimirOverlord1300 on December 11, 2013, 09:26:36 AM
If you want me to edit pm me the article and ill edit and send it back
Thanks :D