Commander - EDH

[Xander9009]

Commander Deck Folder - Anyone can currently edit this folder, so add your decks as you want for now. In the future, it'll match the normal decks folder, so only uploads and replacements will be allowed, with removals being requested (to avoid accidental or troll-induced mass removal by random users). I've removed the EDH decks that were in there, and I'll re-add them by tomorrow once I've corrected them to use the updated system.

Commander should now be working, and this topic should serve as a place to specifically ask questions about the format, report bugs related to it, or to post decks for it. Eventually, once I'm ready to move the online deck browser to the main website, I'll also get EDH decks added to the site.

Notes
Here's what I know about EDH and DotP 2014.

• EDH functionality has gone through many different modders' hands to get here, and it's as yet untested. MC Brodie, sweetlu, Blue Ghost, migookman, and finally me. That's not to mention the ever-present RiiakShiNal and thefiremind.
• There are some limitations to how commander can work. Technically, you should have 100 cards, and one of those cards should be your commander. The game can even handle 100 cards. However, in order to manage the ability to play commander without recoding every legendary to be compatible with it, we opted to have a single manager card which registers a deck as an EDH deck and does all of the work to make it behave properly. This card will take up one slot and then will do nothing else. So, you will effectively be playing with 99 cards, not 100. Fixed.
• There is no proper command zone. The exile zone is being used instead. This means effects which can affect cards in exile may affect the commander while it is in the command zone. This includes cards such as Oracle of Dust, Coax from the Blind Eternities, and Pull from Eternity. These can be addressed at some point, but haven't been yet.
• Your commander's color identity is supposed to include all mana symbols which appear on the card, but currently only considers its casting cost, and is currently only relevant at the beginning of the game when choosing your commander. This means that it doesn't currently do anything about adding improperly colored mana. It also doesn't properly identify the color identity of cards like General Tazri or Archangel Avacyn//Avacyn, the Purifier. Fixed.
• You can only have one commander. Cards with Partner such as Kraum, Ludevic's Opus do not yet allow for dual commanders. Fixed.
• Cards with "X can be your commander" do not function, yet. Example: Nahiri, the Lithomancer. Fixed.
• There is no check in place for ensuring each card is unique. It's up to you to make sure of that.
• It appears your commander is currently only going to the command zone (exile) if it would be put into your graveyard. It should also be available whenever it would go to your hand or library, as well as when it would be exiled normally, but none of these cases is yet covered (and going to exile and going to the command zone aren't technically anything different, yet). Fixed.

How
In order to use an EDH deck, just download it and play the game against other EDH decks.
When the game begins, it will ask you to choose your commander, and it will then exile that creature, set your life total to 40, and then begin the game. If you choose a commander with Partner, you can choose a second one. Partner color identity is handled correctly.
If your commander is in your hand at the beginning of the game, it will be replaced by a drawn card.

In order to create a commander deck, make a deck with exactly 100 cards. At least one of those cards must be a legendary creature whose mana cost includes all colors found in the deck's other cards. If mana symbols are found in the card's text, this is also included, as well as the color of the card's back face, if it has one.
Exactly one card must be a special basic land. Search for cards named "Plains", "Island", "Swamp", "Mountain", "Forest", or "Wastes", and find the one whose filename is "COMMANDER_*". Add your chosen basic land to your deck.
Open the Deck Information window and set "Ignore cards with CMC over -1" to 0.
Add " EDH" to the end of the deck's name. (Make sure the space is included. " EDH" doesn't need to be added to the personality, though.)
That's it. You should have a working EDH deck.

Other Info
Cards in these lists are handled correctly.

Color Identity | Open

Bosh, Iron Golem
Daghatar the Adamant
General Tazri
Ishkanah, Grafwidow
Rhys the Exiled
Thelon of Havenwood
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest
Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Yasova Dragonclaw
Archangel Avacyn//Avacyn, the Purifier

"... can be your commander." | Open

Daretti, Scrap Savant
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
Nahiri, the Lithomancer
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Teferi, Temporal Archmage

Partner | Open

Akiri, Line-Slinger
Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper
Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker
Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix
Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist
Ravos, Soultender
Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa
Silas Renn, Seeker Adept
Tana, the Bloodsower
Thrasios, Triton Hero
Tymna the Weaver
Vial Smasher the Fierce

These cards are not yet coded, but should be possible now.

Commander references | Open

Angelic Field Marshal
Bastion Protector
Command Beacon
Command Tower
Commander's Sphere
Demon of Wailing Agonies
Opal Palace
Stormsurge Kraken
Thunderfoot Baloth
Tyrant's Familiar

If the manager is updated to enforce a limit (this is to both myself and others), please remember to create a characteristic for "CW_CHARACTERISTIC_CAN_HAVE_ANY_NUMBER" (name it whatever you want) for Relentless Rats and Shadowborn Apostle, because they do in fact override the normal EDH singleton limit.

There's still a bunch to do, but the basics should be working with any legendary creature being a usable commander, as well as the 5 commander planeswalkers.

Opinion
Should EDH decks be added to their own folder or is it alright to mix them in with normal decks? Having the separate is easier to use but more difficult to maintain. I would personally opt for separate, and since I'm the one that would be putting the work to manek that happen, don't worry about that. I'm just not sure if anyone would actively prefer them all being together.

EDIT: Removed some info that was no longer true. Updated it to include the various fixes I've just made.

[Splinterverse]

This doesn't appear to be working for me. I built two decks and included the commander manager in each. I didn't use any of the C_ cards. My commanders were Captain Sisay and Omnath, Locus of Rage.

It asks me to choose a commander, but there is nothing presented to select and no cards in hand are able to be selected. The first time, my commander was in my hand and it was not able to be selected. The game wouldn't move forward from that spot, so I restarted hoping that it was because the commander was in my hand. This time, the commander was not in my hand and it did the same thing. The AI opponent did not appear to be able to select a commander either.

When I closed the game, I got this error:

Code: Select all

[lua] [string "_MANAGER_COMMANDER_TITLE (RESOLUTION_TIME_ACTION)~0x000007aa"]:2: attempt to index a nil value


As to your question in the OP, I recommend separate storage of EDH decks. Or, if they are to be stored together, maybe the name of the deck can start with EDH so as not to confuse us. I tend to use the rand deck function a lot in the game, so I'm probably going to use a separate instance of the game for EDH play.

[Xander9009]

@Splinterverse, not very well, necessarily, but one method might be to go to the commander you think it should choose and alter its score. Give it a static ability while in the hand or the library to increase its score by 1000 or so. Restrict it so it's only valid during the upkeep of turn 0. Depending on how the AI considers the zone-change, the score of the one you want to be chosen may need to be decreased by 1000 instead of increased. In most situations, this would have no effect on the game other than during this decision, so it won't hurt to put it on a card even though the card is used elsewhere.

I will take a look at that. I'm also wondering if I could make a copy of the Manager with the copy having a different file name. Then, in the part of that file that handles selection of the commander, I could add a check to see if the player is AI or not. If the player is, the code could be written to pick a card by name. I guess that would really work for either human or AI because, partner aside, each deck should only have one commander, so you could have it auto-select at start with a custom manager.

Making a copy of the card would work, but it would also not generally be a good idea. It would lead to having lots of them, making identifying and fixing bugs really difficult.

I do have three ideas for how this could be addressed. I'll list my preferred method first.

1: Change the manager to always ask a human player. Whenever you play against the AI, you'll choose both yours and your opponent's. This eliminates the need for changing any other cards ever to be chosen as the commander.

2: Alternatively, a simple function could be written to determine the commander. Each deck with multiple valid commanders would have to be added, but it would mean that there's exactly one file that needs to be altered, while still allowing for the issue to be solved.

3: Finally, if multiple commander managers are the chosen method, then they would need to be changed a bit. They'd need to be set up to store a hard-coded name into a variable associated with that deck's player, and then create a copy of the normal commander manager. If we do it this way, it would be MUCH cleaner if the deck-specific cards are kept in the decks they're for rather than in the CW. The CW is meant for cards usable in lots of decks, which this would not be. They're deck specific, and thus would serve as exactly the sort of clutter the CW was created to eliminate. That said, I created the CW with the intent that it be community driven, so if others disagree, then feel free to do this.

While you're considering if these would suitable methods, would you mind uploading both decks you created? I'd drop them in here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... lpYUE12cUk

[Splinterverse]

Making a copy of the card would work, but it would also not generally be a good idea. It would lead to having lots of them, making identifying and fixing bugs really difficult.

I do have three ideas for how this could be addressed. I'll list my preferred method first.

1: Change the manager to always ask a human player. Whenever you play against the AI, you'll choose both yours and your opponent's. This eliminates the need for changing any other cards ever to be chosen as the commander.

2: Alternatively, a simple function could be written to determine the commander. Each deck with multiple valid commanders would have to be added, but it would mean that there's exactly one file that needs to be altered, while still allowing for the issue to be solved.

3: Finally, if multiple commander managers are the chosen method, then they would need to be changed a bit. They'd need to be set up to store a hard-coded name into a variable associated with that deck's player, and then create a copy of the normal commander manager. If we do it this way, it would be MUCH cleaner if the deck-specific cards are kept in the decks they're for rather than in the CW. The CW is meant for cards usable in lots of decks, which this would not be. They're deck specific, and thus would serve as exactly the sort of clutter the CW was created to eliminate. That said, I created the CW with the intent that it be community driven, so if others disagree, then feel free to do this.

While you're considering if these would suitable methods, would you mind uploading both decks you created? I'd drop them in here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... lpYUE12cUk

I have uploaded the decks, but for them to work, you will need my alternate art core (700) that has also been uploaded. There's no alternate code in the cards it contains; just alternate art with corresponding XML copies.

Any of those methods you referenced works for me. I usually don't share the decks I make, so the suggestion to create a separate card for each deck was something I was thinking of doing separately. In that scenario, I would have named each manager to match the deck name. But, I'd much rather have something that is used by everyone, so any of those other options are good. It sounds like option 1 would be the cleanest, but I'll go along with whatever you/others want on that front.

[Xander9009]

I started up a game after creating a 705 CPE and changing the referenced Crucible of Worlds to use the CW's version, since the referenced one was missing. It worked exactly as it should have. I checked that I don't have any extra files lying around making it work by dropping the CW and the files you provided into a clean install, and it still worked.

[Splinterverse]

I started up a game after creating a 705 CPE and changing the referenced Crucible of Worlds to use the CW's version, since the referenced one was missing. It worked exactly as it should have. I checked that I don't have any extra files lying around making it work by dropping the CW and the files you provided into a clean install, and it still worked.

My apologies. It is indeed working. When you made the comment about extra files, I realized that I might have some. It turns out there was a copy of the EDH functions in my folders that I had been messing with a month or so ago when I was trying to get EDH going.

All is good now. Thanks!

[Splinterverse]

Not sure if you are planning to go further with the commander's color identity code, but I just realized that if you use a flip card as your commander, the color identity is calculated from both sides (e.g., Archangel Avacyn would be and ).

Instead of coding that, I think trusting the player to pick a commander properly is good enough, since we already have to trust that the player doesn't pick more than the number of copies of cards allowed, etc.

[Splinterverse]

Just had a thought . . . with the Commander decks that people upload, how will we know which card is supposed to be the commander? (I know that the choices will be limited, but in the decks I've been making, I could see where there would be 5 or 6 choices in some cases.)

[Splinterverse]

You might want to remove the commander color check from the commander selection (or enhance it to account for flip cards). I just tried to play a deck with Archangel Avacyn as a commander, but because the front face doesn't have , it didn't let me select her. I think we can trust the players to pick the right one. This might an issue for cards that trigger off of the commander's color identity, but that might be able to be managed another way.

[Xander9009]

You might want to remove the commander color check from the commander selection (or enhance it to account for flip cards). I just tried to play a deck with Archangel Avacyn as a commander, but because the front face doesn't have , it didn't let me select her. I think we can trust the players to pick the right one. This might an issue for cards that trigger off of the commander's color identity, but that might be able to be managed another way.

Actually, I mentioned this issue in my OP I already dealt with it, too, but I hadn't posted about it because I'm still coding other things.

I've also dealt with cards that have "This card can be your commander." (e.g. Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury).

Oh, and I also changed the way the commander manager works. Now, the commander manager is NOT directly put into a deck. Instead, one of six cards is put in. That card will create the manager, and it will from then on act as just another basic land. One of each basic land is included. To find them, an advanced search will need to be done for the filename "COMMANDER_*", where * is the land it should be. E.g. "COMMANDER_ISLAND" or "COMMANDER_WASTES". This means there are 100 cards like normal, instead of missing one slot for the manager. EDIT: My bad, actually, you can also do a normal filter for cards named "Plains" and just pick the right one. Gotta be able to see the filenames, but that's all that's necessary.

Finally, I'm currently dealing with Partner cards. They should work once I'm done today. No guarantees, but it seems to be going well. Of course, it's all just coding so far. No testing has been done, yet, so come testing phase, I may discover it's all completely wrong...

[Xander9009]

Alright, it's been updated, and it appears to be working. Changes:

• There was no code in place for making a player lose the game when they'd been dealt 21 or more damage by a single commander. There now is.
• Partners are now working. If a partner combination will cover all colors in the deck, then the partners are available for choosing. If one is chosen, you'll be prompted to choose a second. If the second is needed to cover all colors (meaning they have different colors), then you must choose a second one. If they have the same colors, then the second choice is optional.
• The planeswalker commanders are now working.
• Irregular color identities, such as those found on Archangel Avacyn//Avacyn, the Purifier and General Tazri are now handled properly.
• There was no code in place to handle mana outside your commander's color identity being added to your mana pool. Now there is. This cannot affect controlling a basic land of an off-color type. There's simply no elegant way to do that as far as I know.
• Most of the code has been rewritten from scratch today. The framework provided by the others was invaluable, but its history of being handled by one person after the next was apparent and needed consolidated.
• There is no longer a dead card slot. Instead, you choose one of six basic lands, and add it to your deck. It will create the manager, and from there, it works like any other basic land.
• Instead of saying "Commander 1" and "Commander 2" and so on, it's now an activated ability. When you activate it, it allows you to "choose" a player. The only valid choice (lit up) is the card's actual owner, and thus it can show you who it belongs to. This ability is only visible when it's possible someone else may control it (i.e. on the battlefield) and there's potentially a real question who it belongs to (i.e. it's not controlled by its owner). If it's not on the battlefield, or it's on the battlefield under its owner's control, the ability isn't shown.

Currently, there are a few things I still want to do, but they'll have to wait until tomorrow (probably until Tuesday, actually).

• I want to make it so if there is ever no real choice in which commander to choose (any situation where only one valid choice exists), then the choice is made automatically, skipping the dialogue.
• I want to include a combination of two features. 1: Whenever the AI would choose a commander, the choice is passed to a human. 2: Create a function file listing different deck fingerprints and the commander that fingerprint should use. In other words, if a deck has cards A, B, C, D, and E, all of which (except perhaps for the intended commander) are relatively uncommon, and thus the combination is extremely unlikely, then automatically choose A as the commander. This should allow anyone who wants to
• In cases where there is only one opponent, and the commander has not dealt any combat damage to its owner, there is only one valid player for whom to track commander damage. In this case, I'd like to replace the current activated ability which displays the amount of damage dealt to a targeted player thus far with a static ability simply listing the amount on the card. This way, you could simply zoom in to see it without activating anything (much the same way the amount of energy you have is displayed, which is also how the number of times a commander has been cast from the command zone currently displays).
• While the commander's color identity is working even when it's irregular, other cards are not. And even the known legendary creatures with irregular color identities, such as Archangel Avacyn//Avacyn, the Purifier, only have their irregular color identity registered for becoming the commander. They do not contribute their irregular color identity to the deck as a whole. This means that in a deck containing Archangel Avacyn//Avacyn, the Purifier, you could still choose Avacyn, Angel of Hope even though the former clearly means the deck has red, and thus it should be the only valid choice.

[error3]

With the new update I'm not able to generate colored mana from anything other than basic lands.

I'm guessing it's not correctly determining my commander's color identity and is downgrading my mana to colorless.

I have this bug using Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder and Mayael the Anima for commanders. Before the latest update mana generation was working for me.

Any help would be appreciated.

Great work on this mod!

[Xander9009]

With the new update I'm not able to generate colored mana from anything other than basic lands.

I'm guessing it's not correctly determining my commander's color identity and is downgrading my mana to colorless.

I have this bug using Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder and Mayael the Anima for commanders. Before the latest update mana generation was working for me.

Any help would be appreciated.

Great work on this mod!

This has been fixed. I managed code the entire mana replacement ability by storing the color identity at the start of the game, and then any time mana is created, it's compared to that stored identity. If it's not found in the identity, it's replaced with colorless. Only, I forgot the first bit, a tiny function call that does the "storing the color identity" part. As you discovered, that's a pretty important step lol. Since it's only been a couple of hours since the last update (so it would have to go all day to update again) and it's the middle of the night (at least here), I'm pushing the update now. It should be uploaded in about a half hour.

[error3]

I'm having an issue where the AI won't cast their commander, even when it has nothing else it can do with the mana.

Is this a known problem?

The commander is chosen properly, I can see that it has been exiled beside the deck.

I created a deck of just lands + the commander and the AI still wouldn't cast it.

[Xander9009]

I'll check this out tomorrow. I haven't actually played a full game of commander, I just fixed some of the issues that were left over from the others that worked on it. So, for about any given issue, unless I noted it in the OP, it's not a known problem, so thanks.