Last updated on February 14, 2026
Dockside Extortionist (kind of) | Illustration by Forrest Imel
Times are tough, and tough times call for adaptation. The Commander format isnโt immune to the ever-increasing price fluctuation of the world, and so itโs with the heart of a Solemn Simulacrum that the Commander Format Panel announced an increase to commander tax in EDH. It will now cost players to play their commanders from the command zone with each subsequent recast.
50% Increase Across the Board
This new rule will take effect immediately with the release of the South Park Universes Beyond Commander decks, and affects all cards that are eligible for the commander zone, with the exception of Lady Orca, because the Panel felt like it was too harsh to punish the three people playing that deck, and spacecraft commanders, which are exempt from the change because the Format Panel forgot they spacecraft could be put in the command zone.
This news comes coupled with a number of other tweaks to the format. The hybrid mana rules have been loosened even further, allowing players to put any hybrid card in any deck, regardless of color identity, because, and I quote: โWhy not?โ
Commander damage has also been hit with a 50% increase, which means a single commander now needs to deal 31.5 damage to be considered lethal. The Panel describes this change as โinconsequentialโ, stating that no one โhas ever or will ever die to commander damage, especially now.โ
Will Derevi Be Affected?
Yes, actually. In fact, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician will be disproportionately affected by the new rules change. According to the Panel, Dereviโs activated ability has been errataโd to now cost an additional four mana per activation. The Panel cites being โreally tired of that birdโs bullshitโ as the reason for this change.
Similarly, thereโs now a new tax added to eminence commanders, which includes Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, who thought he was going to get away with not actually having eminence written on his card. These abilities now cost to trigger from the command zone, which the Panel admits โdoesnโt actually really make any senseโ with The Ur-Dragon specifically. They believe this change will not only force eminence commanders to pay their fair due, but will finally exonerate Gavin Verhey for creating the ability in the first place.
What About Partners?
Vial Smasher the Fierce | Illustration by Deruchenko Alexander
Partner commanders were a heavy topic of consideration, but the Format Panel has come up with what they proport to be an elegant solution to this recent inflation. If you run partners, or some partner pairing like backgrounds, Friends Forever, Father & Son, Lefty & Righty, Chutes & Ladders, or Johnson & Johnson from the new Johnson & Johnson Secret Lair collaboration, both commanders will be subject to the new 3-mana commander tax. However, to compensate for this, you will also be allowed to play 50% more commanders in the command zone, so you can now play three partners together at the same time.
These changes will certainly be controversial; not as controversial as when infect damage was reduced to two poison counters to be considered lethal, but there will still be plenty of backlash surrounding this recent wave of inflation.
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29 Comments
Honestly, can’t tell if these are real or not….๐คฃ
W
That “satire” is so easy to not see that I got worried at first ๐
Seems based on the comments that we need to make it more visible in the future anyway ๐
That was good bait I respect it.
I dont know if I understand, but is this article a joke or is this for real?
Just a joke, John!
What the hell I’m I reading here?!
Can’t find this information posted anywhere else and honestly it seems blasphemous and as an urge Dragon player this literally makes no sense and I like that the information that’s on here literally goes on to say the same thing so we have a committee here of rule makers that are just blatantly making rules out of sheer Whimsical boredness! – me being polite with my word choice.
This is a satire piece, Sage, these quotes from the Rules Committee are not real.
An absolute troll post that is badly timed. Not even april fools either.
Just wait til you see what we’ve got cooked up for April Fools.
Something that was mentioned to be a joke nothing has changed the rules are still the same this article is a lie
This article is satire.
April Fool’s came early, it seems. ;}ใ
This is all fake guys, chill
Should be marked as satiric
It is in the feature image of the article.
This is so unfair on all my commanders, why does WotC always target me?
Just to be clear, this is a satire piece, not a real rules change.
Choking the life out of a great game and ripping into our wallets at the same time.Yep,sounds like the IRS of wizards.These are the same people getting sued.I would hope they would remember to becareful,change to deep may distance players from enjoying the game.
Just to be clear, this is a satire piece.
Is this an out of season April fool’s joke?
This is a satire piece.
Hilarious. This should’ve been an April Fools joke article. Bravo! ๐คฃ๐คฃ๐คฃ
They should have saved this for April 1st!๐
How do you report for a false article and no clear way to show its fake satire unless you read the greyed out, barely visible tags. Nah Timothy, you kinda need to lose your journalism privileges.
It’s literally in the featured image of the article, my friend.
Not gonna lie, I was having a bit of a panick attack…lol
Good one
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