Last updated on December 26, 2024
Sol Ring – Illustration by Mike Bierek
Over the last few days, the Commander community has been shaken by the unexpected ban of, not just one, but four major staple cards. This surprised most people, as there was no indication that any of these cards were potential ban targets, nor was advice sought on whether they should be targeted in the first place.
The uproar from the community was loud, with all kinds of responses and questions emerging—most of them not in a positive way.
In addition, members of the Commander Advisory group, such as Josh Lee Kwai, resigned from their roles as a consequence of the response.
The situation escalated to the point that WotC took the initiative to remove the responsibility of handling the format from the Commander Rules Committee and take ownership of it themselves.
Once again, this decision caused major concerns within the community, sparking many hypotheses about whether this is a negative development and what it could mean for Commander’s future. Today, we will explore these concerns in depth. I want to emphasize that this is my personal point of view as a Magic: The Gathering player. I will do my best to back it up with evidence and information relevant to the topic.
What does this really mean?
Drannith Magistrate – Illustration by Kieran Yanner
Per Wizards of the Coast’s official announcement on the topic:
“In partnership with members of the existing Rules Committee, we are announcing that the Rules Committee is giving management of the Commander format to the game design team of Wizards of the Coast.”
The sentiment here is clear: WotC values the contributions of the Rules Committee and wants to protect them from the backlash they faced during the recent ban announcement. As a result, WotC is now taking ownership of the format.
Later in the article, they explained their intention to separate decks into tiers, ensuring everyone can have the play experience they want in Commander.
“The idea: There are four power brackets, and every Commander deck can be placed in one of those brackets by examining the cards and combinations in your deck and comparing them to lists we'll need community help to create. You can imagine bracket one is the baseline of an average preconstructed deck or below and bracket four is high power. For the lower tiers, we may lean on a mixture of cards and a description of how the deck functions, and the higher tiers are likely defined by more explicit lists of cards.”
This concept is similar to the tiering system used in other games, like Pokémon, where Pokémon are ranked by power level. Honestly, I like this idea in theory, but I strongly believe Commander should stay as a casual format where local communities dictate the power level. That said, a tiering system could be a useful tool to help players identify the kind of experience they want.
In my experience, WotC prioritizes certain formats, like Standard, Pioneer, and Modern, which are frequently under review. Other formats, like Pauper, tend to be overlooked. Even though Pauper has its own committee, the Pauper Format Panel, decisions regarding that format only come once every few months. This is similar to how the third-party group managed Commander until now.
Considering Commander has become a major focus for Wizards, I can see them putting more effort and resources into keeping their Gilded Goose alive and maintaining player engagement.
Why are people afraid of this change?
Fear of Falling – Illustration by Maxime Minard
Following the recent announcement, some players raised concerns about potential profit-driven actions WotC might take. Aaron Forsythe, VP of Magic design, stated on WeeklyMTG that Wizards’ main way to maintain profit is by keeping the community happy. He emphasized that ensuring the game’s lasting success meant community engagement was the priority, and sales would naturally follow.
Principle Magic designer Gavin Verhey also mentioned forming a panel similar to Pauper’s. As a Pauper content creator, player, and supporter, I can say that the format isn't in the best shape, mainly due to WotC’s passive approach. The general philosophy seems to be to wait for the next set release and hope it fixes any issues.
However, Pauper is a very small format, not even a fraction of the size of Commander, which is why the newly proposed panel for Commander will be larger, consisting of around 10-20 people working directly with WotC, including some current designers. In contrast, Pauper is never considered during the card design process.
Overall, I think it's a good move to dedicate more resources to keeping the Commander format healthy and the community satisfied. However, the mass production of overpowered cards that end up being banned could backfire on WotC, as we saw with some of the recent bans.
Is this for the best?
To some extent, WotC has been managing the Commander format for a while by printing specific products and designing cards just for it. For better or worse, all they’re doing now is taking full ownership of decisions like what gets banned to, as they claim, avoid third-party individuals becoming the target of harassment, as happened recently.
Of course, there will always be someone who becomes the “face” of these decisions, and once they start speaking about bans or changes, they will likely be targeted anyway. So, in that sense, I don’t think much will change from that point of view.
What could change, however, is how products are released. For example, if economic considerations play a role in whether a Commander card should be banned, WotC now has more power to manipulate the market. They could inflate the value of Commander staples by limiting reprints or placing them behind a high paywall (a premium preconstructed deck).
But the reality is that this is already happening. Mana Crypt was reprinted in Lost Caverns of Ixalan as a prime collector’s target, while Jeweled Lotus was the front face of Commander Legends. On the other hand, they didn’t target Sol Ring because they can’t—Sol Ring is included in so many Commander products that banning it could significantly reduce their value.
My two cents
Mana Crypt – Illustration by Matt Stewart
I would separate EDH and cEDH into two formats. This issue arose because changes were made to Commander that affected mostly cEDH. As a subset of Commander, cEDH is currently impacted by changes to regular EDH.
Most people don’t own a Mana Crypt or a Jeweled Lotus, and the ones that do likely aim to play at the cEDH level. It would make sense to have bans that target EDH or cEDH separately to avoid similar issues going forward.
Wizards are already aware that printing powerful cards like Dockside Extortionist was a mistake. Gavin Verhey mentioned on WeeklyMTG that, by today’s standards, they would never have been printed. This suggests that similar cards aren’t expected in the future.
The problem is that no one knows until things happen. The most recent example is Nadu, Winged Wisdom, which was initially banned in Modern because it proved to be too powerful (even though it was designed with Commander in mind). Ironically, it eventually got banned in Commander, too.
The bottom line is that bans should happen to maintain balance in the format, but I think the Commander community might be forgetting something important. WotC is already:
- Building products with Commander in mind
- Designing cards for Commander specifically
These points are important because Commander is far from being a purely community-driven format now, and it makes sense that this shift would eventually happen, as Brian Kibler pointed out a few days ago.
At the end of the day, let’s remember that Commander was created as a way for people to enjoy Magic: The Gathering differently from the traditional constructed formats. Some local communities are already aware of power-level concerns and have likely developed their own internal ban lists. They also often find a balance between competitive play and casual games, so the format doesn’t become strictly cEDH or purely casual.
I also believe that financial factors shouldn’t drive format bans. However, I understand that releasing cards in exclusive products just to sell them at higher prices is problematic. A solution could be to reprint more of these cards in the future, which Wizards of the Coast is capable of doing, so the price can normalize.
What I’m trying to say is that, no matter what, Magic will find its way. Regardless of what Wizards of the Coast does with the format, as long as people continue to find joy in playing the game, they’ll have the freedom to choose whether they like the new direction or create their own version again. (Wink, wink, Pauper Commander!)
Wrap Up
I know these last couple of weeks and the new changes are tough to swallow, especially given how they were introduced — overnight. I understand why people feel frustrated, as these changes have impacted many for various reasons and perspectives, from the player who just lost key pieces of their favorite deck to the local game shop owner who lost hundreds of dollars due to this abrupt announcement.
The reality is that everyone is entitled to their feelings. However, what we need to address is that we can’t let those feelings control our actions, especially if they lead to attacking or threatening others — that’s simply wrong.
Instead, we should channel our frustration into constructive conversations and focus on finding solutions together as a community.
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