A couple years ago, due to the fact that I talked to a lot of Magic judges online, I was introduced to a format called Elder Dragon Highlander, or EDH for short. I’ve always been a fan of variant formats, especially highlander formats. So this definitely peaked my interested.
The rules are simple, and you can read more about it at http://www.dragonhighlander.net/ . But it boils down to this:
- Chose a legendary creature as your “general”.
- Build a 99-card highlander deck. No card in your deck may include mana costs not related to your general. For example, if your general is Rith, the Awakener, you can play Llanowar Elf, Lightning Bolt, Swords to Plowshare, but not Dark Blast, Brainstorm, or multi color cards like Absorb. This includes hybrid cards, and also on-color cards that have off-color activation abilities, such as Votary of the Conclave (a white creature with an ability requiring green mana).
Fairly simple, no? As far as rules for playing your decks…
- Your general starts out in the “command zone”. You may play your general anytime you could normally cast him from your hand.
- If your general would go to the graveyard, or get removed from the game (or “exiled”), you can return him to the command zone.
- Every time you cast your general from the command zone, you must pay an additional 2 mana. So 0 mana the first time, 2 the next, 4 the time after that, etc.
- You begin the game with 40 life.
- If any one general deals 21 damage to you, you lose the game. Life gain does not counteract this.
Some people at the card shop I frequent have begun playing it, so I’ve finally gotten a chance to throw a deck together. Granted, I don’t have the card pool I used to, so my deck isn’t nearly as good as I want it to be, but it’s fun. So far I’ve used Teneb the Harvester, and Rafiq of the Many.
So now you know, anytime you are at an event with aniRAGE, pull out your magic decks and start cardslinging!
-Zeke