A YuGiOh Commander Format

[SelimTheArrogant]

Hey friends,

So long post incoming, but my friends and I back home have been developing a YuGiOh equivalent to MTG's EDH/Commander Format.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with MTG or EDH, EDH is a format where you play a 100 card singleton deck, start with a higher life total, and use one creature spell as a "Commander" that you can cast at any time, and decides the colors you're alowed to play. The banlist is different than other MTG formats, and it uses it's own card pool.

How does this translate to YuGiOh? Well, in our version of Commander, you play with a 60-card main deck (no more, no less, including any commanders), start with 16000 lp, and choose a monster(s) that you can summon at any time, and decides what attribute(s) you can play in your main and extra deck. Additional rule changes are: the return of first-turn draw, and a format specific banlist where all cards are limited to 1. All other rules are Identical to the current master rule IV.

With these rules in mind, what's the deal with these Commanders? As the namesake of the format, commander is a special kind of monster mechanic used to give centrality to your deck. When building your commander deck, the first card you choose should always be your commander. Your commander may be any monster card, if it is a main-deck monster, it counts towards your main deck of 60 cards, and if it is an extra-deck monster, it counts towards your 15 card extra deck. If your commander has any special summon conditions (i.e. an extra deck monster, ritual monster, or nomi/semi-nomi monster) your deck must be capable of summoning your commander by that condition exactly as it is written on the card. For example, if Relinquished is your commander, you must include in your deck 1 black illusion ritual, and monsters whose total levels are equal-to or greater-than 1. You may use substitute cards to fulfill this requirement (like fusion parasite for a fusion monster, or generic ritual spells like contract with the abyss.) All monsters in your main and extra deck must match written attribute with your commander. The following is a list of monsters that count as multiple attributes for this rule:

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Treated_as%20...%20Attributes

Sound restrictive? It can be, so we've instituted a submechanic to help diversify the attributes you can play in your deck. You may choose two commanders for you deck, as long as both have less than 2000 attack, and you follow all the other commander rules for both commanders.

Those of you who've played MTG's EDH already know how commanders function during gameplay, but the mechanics of YuGiOh's commanders are slightly different. Before each players decks are shuffled, the turn order is determined, or opening hands are drawn, each player must reveal their commander(s) to their opponents and set them aside in the "command zone." The command zone is simply the place your commanders go, like the extra or main deck zones, and can be anywhere as long as both players are aware of it at all times. Cards in the command zone, like the graveyard, faceup extra deck, and faceup banished, are public knowledge. A commander may be summoned from the command zone in all the ways it could normally be summoned if it were a regular monster. For example, A commander that can be normal summoned or tribute summoned maybe be normal/tribute summoned from the command zone. If a card in the command zone could be summoned via a card effect, it is treated as being in the proper place for that card effect, with the exception of the graveyard and banished zone. Here are some specific examples to help me illustrate my point:

A fusion/synchro/xyz/link monster may be summoned from the command zone via it's summon conditions as if it were in the extra deck

A level 1 monster may be summoned from the command zone via the effect of one-for-one as if it were in the main deck

Goblindberg can special summon a monster from the command zone as if it were in the hand

Monsters that may be pendulum summoned can be pendulum summoned from the command zone as if it were in the hand

You may activate the effect of Spyral Super Agent to attempt to special summon it from the command zone as if it were in the hand

A player may only control 1 commander at a time, and may not attempt to summon a commander if they already control one. If a player controls more than one commander (this can happen under weird circumstances,) they must choose one commander to keep, and remove the other from the field.

Why did I say "remove from the field?" It has to do with the next Commander-specific mechanic. If a commander is removed from the field, or would be moved anywhere other than the field, it is returned to it's owner's command zone. There are three exceptions to this rule, where a commander may be sent to the graveyard(or banished potentially)

If a commander is used as xyz material for an xyz summon, and then detached from that xyz monster, it is sent to the graveyard

If the summon of a commander is negated, it is sent to the graveyard

If a commander is destroyed while in the command zone (it can happen,) it is sent to the graveyard

Commanders must first be properly summoned from the command zone, so if the latter two cases apply, they may not be special summoned from the graveyard and must be moved back to the command zone before they can be summoned again.

And finally, the last commander rule: If a commander is returned to the command zone, the commander's owner gains a turn counter(s.) What are turn counters? Turn counters are a way to punish a player for losing their commander, and avoid command zone related shenanigans. Each time a commander is returned to the command zone, that player recieves a turn counter, and then an additional turn counter for each other time a commander they own was returned to the command zone. While a player has turn counters on them, they may not summon from the command zone. Starting with the player's next turn after receiving turn counters, during each of that player's end phases they remove one turn counter from themselves.Turn counters are considered "outside" of the game, and therefore cannot be affected by any cards or mechanics other than the turn counter mechanic.

Currently we only have 1 banned commander: Elemental Mistress Doriado

So yeah, that's the gist of it, if you're still with me I'll include a few lists of decks I've built for the format here to give you some ideas, any questions feel free to pm me or comment here

Zoodiac Commander:
https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=1219528

Invoked Windwitch Shaddol Commander:
https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=1055919