Last updated on June 12, 2026
Commander has 5 power levels, or “brackets” as they're officially called. They're meant as a way of clearly putting your deck in a particular bucket, so if you play versus other decks of the same bracket, you'll have a relatively fair and balanced play experience. We've built a calculator so you can quickly analyze your commander deck, or precon, and see it's power level/bracket and an explanation as to why.
Commander Bracket Calculator - a free EDH deck analyzer. Paste your Commander decklist or pick a precon to see its official bracket (1 Exhibition to 5 cEDH), an estimated power level, every Game Changer in the deck, two-card combos found via Commander Spellbook, mana curve, mana screw and flood odds, and the total deck price.
Checks decks against the official Game Changers list (updated February 9, 2026).
A note about cEDH (Bracket 5): cEDH is not easily determined by card choices alone. Players often self-select into this bracket. For this reason, the calculator will not intentionally put a deck in bracket 5. It will, however, also rate your deck on 1-10. Bracket 5 cEDH decks often land in the 8.5-10 territory.
How This Calculator Decides Your Bracket
Our commander power level calculator provides a quick and accurate bracket determination by weighing a few factors all at once:
- Evaluates the raw number of game-changer cards.
- 0 game changers: Bracket 2
- 1-3: Bracket 3
- 4+: Bracket 4
- Number of two-card combos (powered by Commander Spellbook with some weighting on speed)
- Early, fast combos that can be assembled before turn 4: Bracket 4
- Mid/late-game combos (turn 5 or later): Bracket 3
- Difficult combos that often require multiple cards and don't work until the late-game: Bracket 2
- Any mass land denial? Bracket 4.
- Extra-turn cards
- A few (1-3): Bracket 2 (no bump)
- Looped or infinite turns: Bracket 4
How the Commander Bracket System Works

Bracket 1: Exhibition / Unfocused Tier
Power levels 1 and 2 fall into the Unfocused tier. This is where decks without a very clear wincon tend to end up. These decks can be a result of poor deck construction, but they can also be intentionally bad/funny EDH decks that are simply trying to pull off one very convoluted series of events.
Bracket 2: Core / Focused Tier
Power levels 3 and 4 make up the Focused tier. These decks have a clearer goal for winning the game, but they still aren’t all that strong. These are very casual decks and where a lot of budget decks and Commander precons fall.
Bracket 3: Upgraded / Tuned Tier
Power levels 5 and 6 are in the Tuned tier. This is a tier for decks that are still more casual but have a good amount of synergy and a consistent land base with an appropriate number of lands. You’ll see upgraded precons fall into this category a lot, especially if players just upgrade the land base to be a bit quicker.
Bracket 4: Optimized / Powerful Tier
Power levels 7 and 8 are considered the most powerful decks that are still meant for casual rather than competitive play. These decks run maybe one or two miscellaneous pet cards just for fun, but they’re pretty well-tuned for what they want to do. They’re slightly less efficient than the highest tier decks either because of budgetary restrictions or because their game plan takes a little longer to win.
Bracket 5: Competitive / cEDH
Power levels 9 and 10 are the Competitive tier or what players refer to as cEDH decks. These decks have no room for a card that doesn’t help them win or even a less efficient version of one. These decks tend to be very expensive because they require perfectly tuned mana bases and the most efficient card for any given effect.
The Old 1-10 Power Level System
| Old Power Level | Bracket | What It Plays Like |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bracket 1 | A pile of cards with no real-game plan. Legal, maybe just built for laughs. |
| 2 | Bracket 1 | Similar to power level 1, but with a loosely coherent game plan. Probably pretty inconsistent. |
| 3 | Bracket 2: Core | Unmodified precons, homebrews that start a bit slow. Pretty straightforward and no combos. |
| 5 | Bracket 2: Core | Upgraded precons, homebrews with more efficient manabases. |
| 5 | Bracket 3: Upgraded | Heavily modified precons, efficient homebrews with late-game finishes. Maybe a combo or two. |
| 6 | Bracket 3: Upgraded | Tuned decks. These usually have a few game-ending combos and a streamlined gameplan. |
| 7 | Bracket 4: Optimized | Focused decks with high levels of synergy including format staples and efficient interaction that provides card advantage. |
| 8 | Bracket 4: Optimized | Strong manabases, typically fetches and all on-color duals. Fast starts with higher-power mana rocks. |
| 9 | Bracket 5: cEDH | Entry-level cEDH. Low curves with fast mana and two-card combos. |
| 10 | Bracket 5: cEDH | Top-tier decks only. Fully optimized with no wasted slots, cheap or free interaction, and dedicated strategies that win very early and with defense. |



1 Comment
The bracket system is merely a band-aid on a severed head.
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