A project to discuss: a DotP-compatible Commander

[thefiremind]

I just had an idea: since Wizards doesn't want to insert a Commander mode in DotP games, why don't we create our own Commander mode?

The main idea I had was to invent a card that transforms a deck into a Commander deck when the deck contains that card: it should automatically go to the battlefield when the match starts, and manage the Commander rules as well as possible.

That said, how should that card be? This is something I'd like to discuss.
The least invasive way would be to make it an invisible card, but I'm afraid that it would make everything more complicated and less user-friendly: a non-invisible card could have clickable abilities that would be valuable for our purposes. But a non-invisible card must have a type: which one? A land, an artifact, or an enchantment? Personally I would vote for land... it could be called "Commander Tower" or something similar. It would have protection from everything (which would make shroud redundant), indestructibility, and maybe an override trigger that basically means "if this card would leave the battlefield, instead it doesn't". The rest can be decided later: for now, I just want to see the reaction to the idea.

I know that this is pushing really far, since it would be a totally invented card... but the whole Commander rules are community-made, so why not?

Here are the official Commander rules, for reference:
http://mtgcommander.net/rules.php

P.S.: I have yet to test what happens if I make a card go to ZONE_COMMAND_GENERAL (which is defined in the LOL files).
EDIT: When I wrote this, I was forgetting that there's no function to move a card to ZONE_COMMAND_GENERAL, so that can't even be tested.

[RiiakShiNal]

I don't know what will happen on moving a card to ZONE_COMMAND_GENERAL, it may not even work like some of the other things we have seen like Planeswalkers.

That said, it would definitely be an interesting experiment, though there will be limits on some things. We won't be able to implement any of the optional rules listed on the official site. If people do include sideboard cards for commander decks then they would be limited to about 10 cards (which would work beautifully with the promo unlock method) due to the apparent limit of about 110 cards for a deck (theoretical limit is 128, ids 0-127, with bit 8 used as an in-deck identifier bit).

Even if you give it protection from everything you would probably still want to add code to everything that calls for sacrificing a permanent so that a player can't choose it even if the trigger override would prevent it from leaving play.

Then we would probably want to add some code to the "Commander Tower" which would account for a commander deck facing off against a non-commander deck (such as force ending the game after giving an appropriate message).

So our commander decks would end up being 101 cards exactly (100 cards per commander rules, plus "Commander Tower" to control game rules).

As for type, I'm unsure as a type of land would cause some incorrect interactions with some cards (Allosaurus Rider, Dakkon Blackblade, Maraxus of Keld, Molimo, Maro Sorcerer, etc...). If an artifact then would cause issues with anything with Affinity for Artifacts (Broodstar, etc...). Enchantment could also cause issues with cards like Opalescence. I wonder what would happen if we gave the card type Tribal, Plane, Scheme, or Phenomenon if it would be visible and remain on the field or not. If it does with one of those types then it could solve the type problem as cards generally do not check for cards of those types (though cards that look for permanents that do not specifically specify the permanent types may still have issues).

[NEMESiS]

So our commander decks would end up being 101 cards exactly (100 cards per commander rules, plus "Commander Tower" to control game rules).

I haven't checked this on steam but I know in the XBOX version (where I came from) you cannot save your deck with more then 100 cards. So commander may be limited to just 99 cards plus the tower.

[RiiakShiNal]

I haven't checked this on steam but I know in the XBOX version (where I came from) you cannot save your deck with more then 100 cards. So commander may be limited to just 99 cards plus the tower.

This is not necessarily talking about using "unlocks" and making a large deck then saving it to profile (which is a completely different set of problems), but is instead about making a single deck file that contains 100 to 101 cards (without any unlocks) and using that. So even if a deck that large can't be saved to the profile and "resets" every time the game is opened we really don't care. About the only instance in which we would care is if we use unlocks to create a customizable sideboard for the deck (though this would still not work for the optional commander sideboard rules).

As I mentioned earlier in my last post someone (I don't remember the name, I would have to find the post again) here on these forums has reported that they were able to have up to about 110 cards in a deck, but that was (approximately) the limit of what they could get to work properly. So we really shouldn't have a problem with the number of cards.

[Blue Ghost]

I don't know if anyone here is still doing 2013, but I'm almost finished with an implementation of Commander for DotP2013. I made the Command Zone card, which places itself on the battlefield at the start of the game (drawing a card to replace itself if it was in your hand), searches the commander from your library and nails it to itself, and sets your life to 40. The commander can be cast for the appropriate cost by an activated ability on Command Zone. Command Zone references the commander by name, so a different version will be required for each commander. The implementation is mostly completed, and will work for an approximation, but there are a few issues. Any help would be appreciated.

- I haven't figured out an efficient way to track commander damage.
- If the commander starts in the opening hand, Command Zone will not find it. I have Command Zone check ZONE_LIBRARY right now, because when I set it to check ZONE_ANY, it failed. I'm not sure why.
- Command Zone uses counters to keep track of how many times the commander has been cast. This causes issues with effects that interact with counters, such as Doubling Season.
- I used exile to approximate the command zone. Thus, when the commander enters the command zone, the game will prompt you again to return the commander to the command zone.
- I haven't tested this in an actual game yet, so there may be interaction issues I haven't caught.

When those issues are fixed, Commander will be ready. I'll be making some commander decks in DotP2013 soon, if anyone's interested.