Former NFL Player’s New “Cali Commander” Format Met With Skepticism

Last updated on July 13, 2026

West Coast Expansion | Illustration by E. M. Gist

Cassias Marsh, a former NFL player, has raised skepticism in the Magic community surrounding the his recent announcement of a Commander variant called Cali Commander, short for California Commander, with a unique ban list and rule set. Marsh posted his first Cali Commander video on X, Instagram, and Facebook:

Subsequent posts have included announcements about the format’s development and the first official tournament, which will be held July 19th at the Janss Marketplace location of Cash Cards Unlimited, a game store owned by Marsh.

The Gist of Cali Commander

Jeweled Lotus | Illustration by Olena Richards

The official Cali Commander website, calicommander.gg, contains detailed information about the format as well as a deckbuilder players can use to show off their decks to the community. At the time of writing, 11 decks are registered.

Cali Commander is a 1v1 format that uses normal Commander deckbuilding rules (100 cards with one legendary creature, vehicle, or spacecraft as the commander and 99 cards in the deck; the 99 is singleton, must fall under the commander’s color identity, etc). Each player starts at 30 life, a total voted on by the community on Discord.

One of the primary features Marsh pitched for the format is community-based input; the 30 life points were voted on by the community, and the banlist also features community input: The format started with the Commander banlist, and Marsh presented a Google Doc (now closed) that allowed players to vote on whether or not certain cards should be banned or unbanned. The full banlist can be found on the website; notable cards the community voted to legalize include Dockside Extortionist, Mana Crypt, and Primeval Titan.

Marsh pitched the format as an alternative to the problems he identified with Commander, namely long games, plus multiplayer games that could be decided by politics instead of players. It’s also meant to be an explosive, competitive format with plenty of fast mana, tutors, and free countermagic legal.

Community Reactions

Famine | Illustration by Karla Ortiz

The online Magic community has been skeptical, and often critical of Marsh’s homebrew format. One of the most common criticisms is the format’s close relation to other formats, namely Duel Commander. TxTSaint on X said “Isn’t this just Duel Commander? But with a community ban list?”; u/that_dude3315 echoed a similar statement on Reddit, saying “I don’t get how it’s different than just 1v1 Commander.” Duel Commander and Cali Commander share many features, namely the 1v1 format; the primary difference is that Duel Commander has 20 starting life, and the Duel Commander banlist is more expansive, including a tight restriction on fast mana like Crypt and Ancient Tomb.

While the general consensus seems to be ambivalence from most of the community who views this as an alternative to Duel Commander or even Canadian Highlander, some members of the community have taken a more cynical stance considering that Marsh owns a game store (including the store hosting the first tournament):

Another user on Twitter, Jake Browne, posted screenshots from Marsh’s Discord, which shows him discussing buying up Jeweled Lotus and Mana Crypt:

It is unclear at this point what the future of Cali Commander will be; fan-grown formats are hardly a new concept in Magic—those were EDH’s roots, after all—but only time can tell if the format will overcome the community’s indifference and build a community in the Magic ecosystem.