cEDH

What is Competitive EDH?

You’ve probably heard of Competitive EDH (cEDH), but you might not know exactly what that means. cEDH takes the normal rules and ban list for Commander and pushes the format to its limit in terms of strategy and deck construction. While cEDH still retains many of the social aspects of casual Commander, the expectation is that players should be playing to win and making optimal gameplay decisions that will help them do just that. Deck-building also involves honing in on the best inclusions and most efficient win conditions for your strategy. While some players enjoy competing in tournaments, a significant amount of cEDH is played outside of events.

cEDH can be looked at as a form of Rule 0 that has become streamlined over time due to the mutual understanding between cEDH players. There’s no need to have a lengthy pre-game discussion. If everyone in the pod is looking to play cEDH and they all have an appropriate deck that can compete in that type of environment, there’s no need for additional Rule 0 talks about power level or problematic cards and strategies. This doesn’t mean that the social aspects and fun of Commander are gone. For cEDH, the fun comes from optimizing decks and playing games where every decision matters with other players who are looking for the same experience.

How can I get started playing cEDH?

cEDH decks usually contain many expensive Magic cards. Since the experience should be about player skill and not a competition to see who has the biggest wallet, we fully endorse the use of playtest cards in accordance with Wizards of the Coast policy allowing for their use outside of sanctioned play. This is especially useful if you’re still new to cEDH and you’re looking for a deck that appeals to you.

Can any kind of Commander deck be a cEDH deck?

The short answer is no. The long answer is that while there is no actual rule that prevents you from playing any legal Commander deck at a cEDH table, some commanders, strategies, and types of deck-building are simply not going to be effective in a pod full of cEDH decks. Trying to force a deck like this into a cEDH game is typically considered bad form, because it throws off the balance of a normal four-player pod because you’re not playing a deck that actually has a chance of winning the game in a cEDH environment and your deck may even enable other players to win more easily. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a wide variety of decks and strategies available in cEDH.

What does cEDH look like?

cEDH involves careful deck-building considerations focused on optimization within a strategy and thoughtful gameplay decisions by each player with the intent to maximize their chances to win while preventing their opponents from winning. There is plenty of variety in cEDH, although some cards and combos are more common than others. Familiarizing yourself with common cEDH decks and strategies is an important part of improving your odds of survival in cEDH. While you can’t know everything, having an understanding of what your opponents are likely to do can be the difference between winning and losing. While we can’t link every single cEDH deck here, we’ve decided to include some example decks to help you get started.

Many of these, and other, cEDH lists have primers that explain the deck's strategy. We highly recommend reading those. cEDH is constantly changing and evolving as new cards and strategies are explored, but these sample decks offer a variety of different strategies that should serve to illustrate the range of decks that are seeing play in cEDH. You can take a look at the cEDH Decklist Database for more examples of different decks that have been built for cEDH if you’re interested in seeing what’s out there.

cEDH Queue Guidelines

The cEDH queue on PlayEDH is managed via SpellBot. In order to make sure that cEDH stays accessible and fun for everyone, you’re expected to follow some basic guidelines. All normal PlayEDH rules also apply.

  • With regards to expected power level for the cEDH queue, it doesn’t follow the same guidelines as the curated PlayEDH Power levels for Battlecruiser, Low Power, Mid Power, and High Power.

  • Your deck is expected to realistically be able to compete in a cEDH table. This generally means being able to make impactful plays starting turn two at the latest.

  • This doesn’t mean that only the top decks in the format are allowed, but you should be playing decks that pass the cEDH “eye test” and feature strong optimization within their respective strategies.

  • This means that decks should be focused and will typically include a lot of best-in-slot cards that work with your gameplan. This doesn’t mean that creativity is frowned upon. Every single card in your deck should demonstrably be relevant to your strategy, while your strategy should be thoughtful compared to the greater cEDH meta.

  • As with all games on PlayEDH, you should play to win and play to deny opponents from winning. In cEDH in particular, deliberate kingmaking and spite plays are frowned upon and should be avoided. You can find more information about this in the standard PlayEDH rules.

  • You are allowed to engage in table talk, but you’re under no obligation to represent hidden information honestly or to honor deals that were made during the course of your games. You are still obligated to be respectful of other players.

  • You are allowed and encouraged to record your games so that you can review them later. If you play on PlayEDH, you consent to having your audio and video recorded by other players or by PlayEDH server staff.

  • Failure to follow these rules may lead to action including loss of access to PlayEDH. If you encounter any issues while playing, please reach out to us via Modmail on Discord.