WotC’s New Commander Format Panel Is Finally Here [Details]

Last updated on December 26, 2024

Council of the Absolute | Illustration by Zoltan Boros

Wizards of the Coast has just announced the formation, structure, and members of the new Commander Format Panel, an advisory group of community members, content creators, and Commander players meant to help WotC steer Commander in the right direction.

The advisory group members include:

• Attack on Cardboard
• Bandit
• Benjamin Wheeler
• Charlotte Sable
• DeQuan Watson
• Deco
• Greg Sablan
• Ittetu
• Josh Lee Kwai
• Kristen Gregory
• Lua Stardust
• Olivia Gobert-Hicks
• Rachel Weeks
• Rebell Lily
• Scott Larabee
• Tim Willoughby
• Toby Elliott

One significant change from the original Rules Committee is that these aren't volunteers, all members of the new Commander Format Panel will be paid, according to principal designer Gavin Verhey.

Verhey explained that the success and ongoing community involvement with the Pauper Format Panel inspired WotC to build the Commander variant after acquiring the format.

“As I mentioned before, keeping the community front and center here is critical,” said Gavin Verhey. “So, we wanted to assemble a group of the community to manage Commander: the Commander Format Panel (CFP).”

What Will The Commander Format Panel Do Next?

Arcane Signet | Illustration by Dan Scott

WotC stated in the announcement that the goal of the panel was to help guide WotC as they maintain the format and its ban list.

“This group will be working with our design teams and other teams at Wizards to help provide feedback and craft the Commander experience,” Verhey said. “We're going to have an ongoing group Discord where we discuss the format throughout the week, every week.”

They also confirmed that the panel is already working on revising the EDH ban list and testing out variants of the power bracket system announced earlier this month. Following the finalization of that system, Verhey expected them to have updates and possible revision to the banlist. Those revisions would include possible unbans, but players shouldn't expect any new bans to come their way.

“After aligning on a bracket system and running some tests, I expect our focus to turn to our evaluation of the banned card list,” Vehey said.”To set expectations on that timeline, I wouldn't expect any changes before early next year at the earliest, and you will have advanced notice. As we said previously, it's still true that you should not expect any new bans in that evaluation.”

Additionally, Verhey said that they fully expect the panel to shrink as time goes on and the format settles following the massive changes that have come over the last few months.

“To set expectations, it is likely that the total number of people will go down in the first rotation,” Verhey said. “Seventeen people, plus myself, is a huge group! For the first year, there's plenty for us to evaluate together, so I'm happy to have the extra eyes and experience, and it's really important to maintain consistency and vision during this transition.”

There was no mention of the non-disparagement clause that was allegedly in each of the member's contracts and restricted their negative speech towards Wizards of the Coast.

Commander's Future Under the Panel

Finally, Verhey stressed that maintaining Commander and making changes is a slow process and that they want to focus on delivering positive results over the next year rather than quick, unproven changes.

“One major thing that has been stressed in conversations and feedback to me is that Commander moves slow. This isn't like a format that wants a heavy touch or constant re-evaluations like competitive formats,” Verhey said.

“We're going to take our time to do it right. We don't want things to change all the time. Stability is a cornerstone of what makes Commander so great.”