The social side of Commander depends on the group. Here are a couple of tips to keep in mind. Lead by example where you can.

You’ve mastered the social side, and your Tournament Organizer has made steps to keep games moving. How can your game-play decisions and deck-building keep a game moving?

Maybe your opponents don’t play enough creatures. That’s ok, you can give them a creature! Slicer, Hired Muscle, and Alexios, Demios of Kosmos are true aggressive creatures. They are awesome as Commanders or in the main deck. Every turn, the active players gain control of them. They must attack, and cannot attack you and can’t be sacrificed. This duo will shred through the opponent’s life total!

Group hug is difficult. Find a balance. Your primary goal should be to win the game. Any “helpful” effect needs to help you more than your opponent.

Howling Mine is a classic example. However, your opponents are always the first to benefit from it. Ask yourself: Is the extra card you’re drawing better than the three cards your opponents will collectively draw?

For this reason, I love Scrawling Crawler. It’s colorless, can attack, and everyone draws one card on your turn. It’s a small difference, but it means you always guarantee getting a card from it. On top of that, its triggered ability hurts the opponent for every card they draw. Draw step, take damage, sacrifice a clue, take damage, you get the idea. It racks up fast!

Letting your opponents draw cards also adds fuel to the fire. An opponent with resources is scary, but they have to split that attention between the other opponents.

I believe the best group hug cards are tied to other useful effects. Here are a handful of rapid-fire options that are good in any deck.

• Loran of the Third Path: She blows something up when she enters. The card draw can target a weak player, help you make deals, or dig for answers in a desperate time.
• Faerie Mastermind: Gain some card advantage over time. Help the entire table out in their time of need. It is also a sneaky way to kill someone when Thass’as Oracle is on the stack.
• Wrong Turn: Use this as a piece of interaction to avoid damage, or clear the way for a counterattack.

Finally, a nice bit of helpfulness is the “Friend or Foe” cycle from Battlebond. For each player, you choose friend or foe. Friends get a good effect, and foes get a bad one.

In most cases, you’ll choose friend for yourself and foe for everyone else. However, in a pinch, you can use these to help an opponent out or encourage some powerful plays against your other enemies. Virtus’s Maneuver is the spell-version of Fleshbag Marauder. All your opponents sacrifice a creature, while you get something back to hand. This is an amazing rate!

Pir’s Whim is amazing if you play lots of non-basic lands. You can search for Glacial Chasm, Cavern of Souls, or Field of the Dead while your opponents lose an artifact/enchantment. Khorvath’s Fury, Regna’s Sanction, and Zndrsplt’s Judgment all have their home too. But the green and black members really shine.

In the opposite vein, we want to discourage cards that grind the game to a halt. Some classics include Winter Orb and Trinisphere. Unless you specifically have a way to abuse these cards, I would avoid them. Urza, Lord High Artificer, and Meria, Scholar of Antiquity are great at this.

Any card that stops the opponent from outright doing things is going to make a game drag. In general, if you are playing a stax/hate effect, try attaching it to a creature so you can still get damage in and keep the game moving. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Kambal, Consul of Allocation are wonderful ways to punish your opponent while keeping the game moving. Don’t just stop at the little guys, Liesa, Shroud of Dusk is a fantastic way to keep life totals under pressure.

1. Protean Hulk dies, search for Karmic Guide and Carrion Feeder.
2. Karmic Guide returns Protean Hulk.
3. Sacrifice Hulk to Carrion Feeder.
4. Search for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and any one-drop.
5. Copy Karmic Guide, return Hulk, and sacrifice Hulk again.
6. Search for Felidar Sovereign and a two-drop.
7. Felidar and Kiki for infinite damage.

Your combo and tutor lines should be rehearsed. That’s for your sake, and your opponent’s! Additionally, practice your combo lines under different situations. “How does this combo work if Kiki-Jiki is in my hand?”, “How do I win if I know my opponent has a counterspell?”, practice makes perfect!

So far everything has been generic advice that can apply to any deck. Now let’s turn to commanders that lend themselves to these playstyles. A couple of the ideas I shared so far might require more build-around than others. But, hopefully, some of these will inspire you!

If you run a game store or social event you have some say in the pace of your games. There is a huge range of ways to handle this, and it will vary based on your community. Here are some things I have done to keep games moving.

There is always some time limit.

Closing time at the venue is the ultimate decider. My club has three hours to get in, play games, and get out. We initially ran three 50-minute games per night. This led to more games, and some great variety throughout the night. However, we ran into many games ending in a draw.

Commander is social, if people get chatty, or controlling decks drag the game out it can be difficult to reach a satisfying conclusion. Our club is generally more casual. 50 minutes was not enough time to get the games complete. If you are a cEDH group, however, 50 minutes may be just right.

We have recently moved to 75 minutes per game. This is more than generous enough for games. It has even led to a resurgence in more precon power-level decks. This also gives time for the casual side. We meet in a café. Getting coffee, chatting to old friends, or making some trades are possible thanks to this longer time.

A great way to normalize the gameplay experience is running special events. These can be tailored in either direction. Encourage a “Bracket 5” event where players bring their most powerful decks if they want to keep things moving.

Alternatively, a precon-only event is a nice chance to teach new players in a relaxed environment. I am particularly fond of running precon leagues. Let players bring the same deck for a couple of sessions. Allow them a certain budget to purchase upgrades and see how gameplay evolves.

Knowing your audience is a big part of being a successful organizer.

“The customer is always right” is misused a lot. It does not mean the customer is infallible, or all-knowing. Rather, it means the customer is the one paying the bills. If the customer does not want to play Tiny-Leaders, don’t run Tiny-Leaders. It does not matter how cool, interesting, or fun “you” find an event.

You need to ask,

“Will my customers enjoy it?”

and

“How do I get customers interested?”

A Community of Commander players is less likely to transition to 60-card formats. However, a Modern player might be convinced to try Pioneer. Drafters are an easy group to please. They’ll draft practically anything. Remember, you are running an event for the customer, not for you.

Keeping a game of Commander moving is a challenge. Lots of players, complex board states, and gummed-up boards make this format ripe for long dragged-out games.

I hope my tips have given you some tools to help in your next game. There are a lot of ways to speed up your games. While some of these strategies are not the most powerful, I hope they help bring more fun to your games.

Ben Guilfoyle started playing Magic in 2015. They love to research the design of Magic. Why was this card banned? Could this silver border card actually see play? Cards that push the limits of design is what excites them. You can usually find them playing cube. This ties into their second passion: numbers. With a background in physics and statistics, they love to get in the weeds when building decks. Crunching numbers is their specialty.