September 30, 2024, the most popular game format in all of Magic: The Gathering, was irrevocably changed for the worse. The Commander Rules Committee (RC) has officially been dissolved, and Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) will now be directly controlling the fate of EDH. 

Depending on who you trust more, either Adam Staley or Jesus M. Lopez created EDH in the halcyon days of the mid-90s, presumably with MTV on in the background while complaining about gas prices rising above a dollar. It was popularized with an article on Star City Games in 2004, and first played by a Wizards of the Coast employee in 2005. The RC was formed the following year by a group of Pro Tour judges in order to provide a bit of oversight to the new format. It wasn’t until 2011 that WOTC truly realized the financial potential of the format, dubbed it Commander, and gave it an official release. EDH existed for approximately 15 years before it became an official Magic: The Gathering product. Even after this commercial release, the Rules Committee remained an independent entity, made up of volunteers who were passionate about the game. For those interested in the full history of EDH, Polygon detailed it wonderfully in 2020. 

On September 23, the RC announced a set of controversial bans that I wrote about last week. Unfortunately, not everyone decided to express their opinions in a decent manner, and a huge volume of death threats were sent to the five members of the Rules Committee. To be clear, I don’t blame the RC for disbanding – if I received death threats for something I did at my volunteer position, I’d quit too. I hope everyone who threatened to kill other people over painted cardboard is happy that everyone who plays Commander must now deal with their actions. 

Screenshot: September 2024 Commander Banning FAQ document.

What’s done is unfortunately done – now we must look to the future of the format. What does this change mean for Commander? I believe there are actually two questions hidden here: how will it affect Commander on paper, and how will it affect the format in practice.

 WOTC has thus far been vague about their plans for the format, however one change they have already announced is their plan for four power brackets to replace the nebulous system of power levels. This bracket idea is painfully subjective, as demonstrated by Star City Games here. There seems to be no differentiation here between powerful cards and salty cards. Vampiric Tutor is an incredibly powerful card in any deck, I can understand it being in bracket 4. It can make or break a game. Armageddon, on the other hand, is a card that only wins games in edge cases, but it is a card everyone hates in all cases. I would not consider it to be on the same level as Vampiric Tutor. On the other end of the spectrum, Drannith Magistrate, a card that disallows anyone playing their Commander (you know, the whole point of the format) is considered to be part of bracket 3. EDH decks are unique entities, everyone builds a little differently around whatever mechanic or card strikes their fancy. A card that may be a “bracket 4” card in one deck may be more like a bracket 2 in any other. As a measuring stick, it is just as useful as “my deck is a seven” has ever been – only now we’ll say “uh, my deck’s in bracket two or three” instead. 

Vampiric Tutor, Armageddon, and Drannith Magistrate.

They’ve also promised to evaluate the banlist and not ban additional cards in doing so; necessary but unprofitable bans like the one last week may soon become a thing of the past, but only time will tell. 

On their October 1st Twitch stream (full of all-caps messages in the chat to both maintain or undo last week’s bans) to address the RC changes, Gavin Verhey started out by saying that they intend to keep Commander as a community-driven format. His idea to make a panel for regulation that’s similar to what they have for Pauper is intriguing and, on its face, a good idea. I actually like a lot of the points he makes on the stream, specifically that of ubiquity being bad for the game – though I suspect we’re simply subscribed to the same subreddits. However, we must ask the question that comes with all of WOTC’s decisions since Hasbro brought them in as a division of their company rather than a subsidiary in 2021: What does Hasbro intend to do? The most common answer to that question in the last three years is “whatever will make the most money.” 

Aaron Forscythe, VP of Magic Design and – more importantly in my opinion – player of Magic since 1994’s Revised, said he is “here for the love of the game,” and insists, as he must, that he will be able to continue to make decisions that are best for the game despite Hasbro’s desires. Is that what they’ve been doing, though? Ultra-rare chase cards, Secret Lairs, Universes Beyond, the ever changing state of booster packs, and Collector’s Packs are all post-Hasbro decisions that are certainly in the best interest for their bottom line, but I would argue they have been detrimental to the players and the game. 

I believe that EDH has always been a format best played at the kitchen table. My favorite place to play is a local bar that hosts a weekly Magic night (shoutout to Thirteen Barrels and the Magic Monday homies!). If this is how you play EDH as well, I expect not much will change for us. I play with a group of people who all know each other’s decks and play styles and who aren’t afraid to rule zero something if needed. A meta like ours is already mostly player regulated. However, playing a pickup game of Commander in a game store now sounds like an absolute nightmare to me. I believe that “organized play” is what will truly suffer under WOTC’s watch.

Ultimately, I believe that we as a community need to remember that Commander was made of the players, by the players, and for the players. Long before precons and Commander Masters sets, and even the name Commander, this format was nurtured at kitchen tables across the world. Players created EDH, players destroyed the Rules Committee, and I believe it is up to the players to take it back. Your public library has a printer, and the internet has plenty of ways to proxy that I’m not allowed to link here. We do not have to be slaves to the secondary market or the whims of Hasbro. Commander is dead, long live EDH.