Could EDH Work in Hearthstone?

EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander), or as it is more commonly known, Commander, is one of the most popular game modes in Magic: the Gathering. The way it works is you pick a Legendary Creature to be your "commander". The commander doesn't go into your deck, but instead is in a special zone where you can always play him as if he were in your hand. You also build a 100 card deck, with only one copy of each card, centered around your commander.

So I was thinking, what if we had something like this in Hearthstone? You could pick a Legendary minion, and then build say a 50 card deck with only 1 copy of each card. The legendary minion wouldn't be shuffled into your deck but would instead go into a separate zone where you could cast it whenever you had the mana for it. 

Decks would be really inconsistent because you are playing with 50 different cards, but you also get to pick one Legendary who you get to play every game which increases consistency. You would have to adjust the UI a bit to make room for the "commander", but I think it would be pretty fun. 

The main downsides is that Highlander cards would be no-brainer inclusions, but you could always ban them in that format. I am not sure if that is the best fix, but it would solve the problem. 

I am not sure if this format would work in Hearthstone, but I thought it would be fun to speculate. It may be really broken getting Deathknights on curve or always having Shudderwock whenever you need him, but it could also open up a lot of room for brewers like myself to have a lot of fun. What do you think? Could Elder Dragon Highlander be a format in Hearthstone?

I've never heard of this before, but it sounds like a very cool idea. I love Highlander decks, and I love a good "feature legendary" in a deck, so this sounds like a great combination.

Perhaps they could run it as a Tavern Brawl one time and then make it a full mode if it is super popular.

It could be interesting, though they'd probably have to make up some special rules. Magic's EDH has certain deckbuilding restrictions built in due to the colored lands and commander's colors, which allows for a wild variety of EDH style decks, whereas I think that in HS, people would quickly whittle down the worthwhile commanders to a quick few and just about everyone would be playing the same deck. Also, subsequent plays of the commander cost two more each time, which would knock out a lot of commanders after one play, so you're either have to eliminate that aspect, or add mana bubbles beyond 10.

I would be interested to see how they could build it though, esp since commander games are often played in groups of 4 or more Maybe a rank of specially created Boss cards that have varying abilities and their own rules, or that can be played at 1,4, 7, and 10 mana with different effects each time. Could be pretty cool.

too much p2w

since a legendary is on average stronger than a normal card and you are restricted to only one offs.. legendaries get too much of a plus... sure highlander decks are strong currently but so are some cheaper decks as well,

If zephrys and co. are not banned, the commander will be a no brainer.. of course it would be zephrys..

the decks in HS aren't that big anyway so having a "always drawn" card is not such a big bonus.

Seeing posts like this reinforces the reason why Hearthstone needs Tables.

I don’t know how many people would play EDH in Hearthstone, but the option should still exist for players to be at least able to try it

Quote From DoubleSummon

too much p2w

since a legendary is on average stronger than a normal card and you are restricted to only one offs.. legendaries get too much of a plus... sure highlander decks are strong currently but so are some cheaper decks as well,

If zephrys and co. are not banned, the commander will be a no brainer.. of course it would be zephrys..

the decks in HS aren't that big anyway so having a "always drawn" card is not such a big bonus.

there are tons of highlander decks with few unique

Problem is people will only really play a handful of cards like N'Zoth, Yogg, DK Guldan and so on. Would be fun, but quickly busted.

Thought EDH stands for Even Demon Hunter lmao

Interesting idea! I think it would be cool, but might be limited by the existence of Legendaries like Keleseth and Frizz Kindleroost that are insanely powerful when played on curve. Imagine a Zoo deck that always plays Keleseth on turn 2, or a Dragon Deck that always has Frizz on turn 4. I think these problems could probably be solved by nerfs to those cards in EDH game mode only, so maybe it wouldn’t be a problem.

The biggest problem with EDHearthstone, assuming playerbase dilution doesn't matter, would probably be that some legendaries like vargoth or hemet, jungle hunter would be too strong to have "in your hand" at the start of every game. Combos are innately a bigger problem in hearthstone than MtG because of the lack of instant speed interaction, so combo legendaries could suppress experimentation with stranger commanders.

If you had a ban on those cards, then the format could be interesting, but I'm not sure that some archetypes have enough viable cards to fill a 50-card decklist.

Value commanders would probably not be a problem, just because combo commanders would be so prevalent. Mecha'thun decks can just be full of cheap removal, their combo and have hemet as the commander to probably win as soon as they have the mana without any variance.

Commander is a format that works in Magic for 4 main reasons:

• Multiplayer format
• Color combinations and color identity
• Instant speed spells
• No creatures/mana cap

The main reason why EDH is so popular in the MTG community is because you can play with 4 (usually) people at once. This can create some intresting interaction with the players on the table. Say that one opponent is having an awesome start, the others can make a temporary alliance to contrast him and then procede with the game. Or maybe you can make a favor for someone by killing a thing that threatens him to then receive a favor. Right now HS is only a 1v1 format (or a 1v7 if you count Battlegrounds, but you cannot interact directly with one opponent) but things could change with the new game mode. At least I'm hoping so.

Magic like the most recent Runeterra is a card game that has multiple color identities and that can combine them to create new ones. Up until now HS has shown no sign of making a multiclass format. Yes sometimes the arena has an event when you can play that 2 class arena. But let's be honest, who plays arena in 2020?

The only way to interact with your opponent during his turn is by playing a secret. The huge downside is that you cannot chose when to activate them. Also the mana cap and  minion cap are a huge downside for a game mode that by design wants to do crazy comboes.

Plus they would have to ban all the "no duplicates" cards from the game mode since they would be instant include.

That said, I would love the game mode since EDH is also my favorite mode in MTG

Quote From sinti

Quote From TartaMagica

But let's be honest, who plays arena in 2020?

Slap yourself right now you heathen!

Lol sorry, I just wanted to put a joke in the middle of a wall of text.

I think going for more than 30 cards in HS is just too much, even worse if you enforce the Highlander.

The Commander thing is cool, but tricky, and banning some cards arbitrarily on the base of power sounds awkward for a permanent Constructed mode.

Also, playerbase dilution might be an issue both for existing modes and the new one.

Sounds like a really interesting mode, but the 50 card limit would be majorly limiting. 50 cards means combo decks will not be a thing at all because you'd never be able to live long enough if you got crucial cards in the last 20, let alone 10, cards of your deck. It also makes playing control more punishing against aggro because the likliehood of drawing into a high mana vs a low mana hand is greater. 

So while the mode sounds awesome on paper it would encourage aggro decks to win quickly. Now if you had the standard 30, maybe 40 cards, and that could be a different matter.

I love this idea, now I can drop Gruul on 8 on time every time.