EDH

Elder Dragon Highlander, commonly abbreviated as EDH, is a multiplayer variant of the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game. It emphasizes social interaction and long, varied games, and is widely known today as Commander, its officially recognized form.

In EDH, each player builds a 100-card deck from their own collection. The deck may contain only one copy of any card other than basic lands. Each deck is led by a commander, a legendary creature (or a card marked with the text “This card can be your commander”) placed in the command zone at the start of the game. The commander's color identity defines which cards may appear in the deck. A player may cast the commander from the command zone for its mana cost, plus an additional 2 generic mana for each time the commander has previously been cast from the command zone. If a commander would be put into a graveyard or exile, its owner may choose to place it into the command zone instead. The starting life total is 40, and games can be played in free-for-all or team formats.

Gameplay emphasizes complex interactions, political negotiation, and varied strategies. A player wins by eliminating opponents or achieving other victory conditions found on individual cards. In addition to standard MTG damage, a player can lose the game if a single commander deals 21 or more combat damage to them over the course of the game (commander damage).

EDH has a large, active community with both official support and community-created content. Wizards of the Coast releases Commander products and provides general rules, while a community-driven rules framework maintains a ban list and clarifies common interactions. The format supports diverse themes and social play styles, contributing to its status as a popular casual variant in Magic: The Gathering.