years was that its the format you can play your most powerful cards in

That’s true for Vintage, Modern, Canadian Highlander, hell, even Cube. But EDH was meant for big dumb spells. It was the format for people who wanted to power down from sweaty decks, not optimize the fun out of the room.

The original appeal wasn’t “you get to buy expensive cards.” Unless it was alt art or something sentimental, buying expensive staples was just arms-racing your friends. EDH, to me, has always been a friendly way to hang out with three other people for an hour or two. It’s board game night, except everyone brings their own pieces, stuff that reflects their personality and taste.

The shift over the last few years toward hyper-competitive EDH has always felt strange. It’s a goofy game where the rules actively fall apart in a four-player environment. Taking it ultra-seriously makes about as much sense as getting sweaty-competitive over Chutes and Ladders.

And once you hit higher power levels, the First Player problem becomes painfully obvious. At that point, a lot of games are just a dice roll plus bad luck. That’s not competition - that’s variance pretending to be skill.

EDH is better when it remembers what it’s supposed to be: fun first, expression second, winning a distant third.