"What's the difference between EDH and Vintage?"

"40 cards."

That was in the signature on a post over at MTGSalvation that I recently saw. Kinda funny and kinda sad, really. EDH is going through some growth pains right now. It's risen in popularity over the past few years. Like any alternate format I've seen, it's now undergoing it's transition to a "competitive" format. That's a loaded statement, of course. What do I mean by "competitive?" Simply this: When enough people who care STRICTLY about winning get involved in a format, it gravitates towards a state where it becomes dominated by a handful of viable archetypes comprised of a set of cards that are considered the best available. This is just about the definition of vintage, and it flies in the face of the original intent of those players who developed EDH.

So what? Why does this matter? It really shouldn't I've heard tell that Wizards may be considering using EDH as a sanctioned format and along with that an uproar from the EDH community that doing so would ruin EDH. Huh? How? I know there exist some really brutal EDH decks out there. Some that can lock out opponents within the first few turns. Possibly even the first. Great. But you know what? Those folks are NOT going to be playing with my group, and anyone who tries bringing a deck like that to my kitchen table is going to receive some serious peer pressure to get some personality.

EDH was designed to be fun, yes, but how so? The rules were meant to support the play of big spells, starting with, obviously, the generals. It was also designed with the thought of group play in mind. There is, nor will there ever likely be, a sanctioned format for group play (Two-Headed Giant doesn't count as it's a team format, which I consider different than a group format.) So don't worry about EDH. If Wizards sanctions it, it will be a stripped down version for duels. If they do that, then it really won't be EDH any longer.

One last thing. If you really want to experience EDH in a fun way - try limited EDH. Just read up on the rest of this blog to find out how we've been doing. So far, it's been really fun.

What's the difference between vintage and limited EDH?

Everything.
Rodolfo