Hello, everybody! This is Gavin Verhey on behalf of the Commander Format Panel. And if you don't know what that is, check out this article.

When we last talked about two months ago, we revealed our new beta test of the bracket system and the Game Changers list, and I mentioned we'd be back in late April with an update. Today, we're going to walk you through the current state of brackets and some updates to the Game Changers list.

We also unbanned some cards today. If you're looking for more information on unbans, check out that update here.

There's a lot to discuss, so let's get to it!

The Bracket System in Review

Commander Brackets Beta

Commander Brackets beta was something entirely new. We revealed it and eagerly awaited all of your feedback, with the initial test at MagicCon: Chicago.

We've all spent a ton of time poring through your feedback: watching videos, reading articles, spending time on social media, and talking with all of you. Personally, while I haven't been able to respond to every message, I have read them all and feel like I've learned so much. Thank you for all of your feedback; it really makes a difference.

Overall, I would say that feedback has been far more positive than negative. People are excited to have something to try for Commander matchmaking. And most of all, it's provided additional terminology to talk about the games they want to play, all while reminding folks of the importance of pregame conversations. Watching it in action at Chicago was wonderful, and I had multiple players tell me the brackets led to some of the most evenly matched Commander games they've played at a MagicCon yet.

But those are just my anecdotes. Let's get to some actual data.

In the official survey done for MagicCon: Chicago, 87% of people who tried the bracket system said it was helpful in their games. Incredible!

The online player pool is another place we looked for data. I talked with the Magic Online (MTGO) team over at Daybreak Games, and about half of all Commander games on MTGO are using the bracket system. They also let me know they're actively working on implementing this system programmatically wherever possible.

It's unofficial, but I also talked with Amy who runs SpellBot, which pairs Commander games across many major Discord servers. About 54% of all games on those servers use Commander Brackets to pair people. The system adoption is high for something only two months old, which is great to see.

Now, I also don't want to take these early wins as a sign that the system is perfect. One of the easiest ways to fail in the long term is to succeed early and think you can stop improving. We've heard a ton of feedback about the system. While plenty of it is positive, there's also room for clarity, expansion, and refinement.

How many brackets should there be? Should the Exhibition bracket exist? Is the Upgraded bracket too broad? What is the exact list of mass land destruction? What does "a few tutors" mean? Should there be a bracket 3.5, 2.5, or something between the existing brackets?

We talked through a range of changes in this vein to move some verbiage and goalposts around. However, as we looked into it more, we decided against changing the tiny details of the system this early. While the most involved Magic players may have digested it already, it's taking time to trickle out and be adapted by the broader community.

Tons of content creators have made pieces explaining the system. People are just starting to learn how it works and what it is. If we go down this path every two months and rearrange all the pieces of a system that has been overall quite successful thus far, it's going to erode people's ability to learn the system properly. It also takes time to learn new information, apply it, and update decks accordingly.

A great example is Exhibition (Bracket 1). When we announced the system, Exhibition had a small pool of people who were excited about it, but a lot more who didn't have decks for that bracket. We heard about little Bracket 1 play initially. Were we wrong to include that bracket?

Now that we've given people time to begin understanding Bracket 1 and build decks with it in mind, we are seeing it grow, with streams highlighting the bracket, people showing off their Exhibition decks, and so on. While it may not expand to a wider audience, we shouldn't cut that tree limb off before it has a chance to grow.

So, we want to keep everything as is to allow for folks to experience the brackets, calibrate their decks, and see what each bracket looks like. We will likely still tweak some things, but other things may naturally fall into place as more people try out and discuss the system.

We will continue to run the Commander Brackets beta test this year, and you can expect us to come back with any actual system-level changes later this year—we're imagining sometime before MagicCon: Atlanta, but we don't want to lock down a time right now.

To be clear: Commander Brackets are not receiving any changes at this time. The system is still in the beta stage.

However, that doesn't mean we're not making any changes to pieces.

When we rolled the system out, we tried to keep the Game Changers list small. We were worried about the number of cards people would have to track and worked with great community tools like Archidekt, Moxfield, and Scryfall to make sure those sites were ready to roll out and track those immediately. While a precaution I'm glad we took, we may have overcorrected a bit: the overwhelming response (and most common point of feedback) was that people could do with a lot more Game Changers. Having this set list and shared language has been helpful when talking about games. Additionally, adding more Game Changers will help distinguish brackets by pushing some decks upward.

So, today, we're adding significantly more Game Changers. This way, the system as you learned it stays the same, but the list of Game Changers is clear and easy to reference.

I also want to touch on one aspect that we want to emphasize when selecting your deck's bracket: intent.

Intent of Play

When we first rolled out the bracket system, one mistake I believe we made was to not emphasize how important the intent you have for your deck is when selecting its bracket. The Game Changers list and the bracket guidelines got most of the emphasis, and intent sat on the sidelines. However, in terms of importance, those should be flipped.

Intent is the most important part of the bracket system.

While there are guidelines to keep in mind when deck building (no Game Changers in Exhibition or Core, no mass land denial through Upgraded, etc.), the bracket system is emphatically not just "put your deck into a calculator, get assigned a rank, and be ready to play." I deeply appreciate the tools that websites like Moxfield and Archidekt have put together to give you an overall estimate, and they've done some fantastic iteration to help emphasize intent as well—but I want to stress that any estimate is just an estimate. It's on you to use what you know to label your deck correctly.

I can easily build a deck that technically meets all the rules of Core (Bracket 2) and plays at the power level of Optimized (Bracket 4), as I'm sure many of you can, too. Those tools are helpful directions and guidelines. But ultimately, knowing your own intent is the most critical piece of this whole thing.

You can always "bracket decks up," meaning you can note that your deck meets the description of a Core (Bracket 2) deck but plays like an Upgraded (Bracket 3) deck, so you should bracket it at Bracket 3. If you make a fully tricked-out Goblin deck that uses no Game Changers, it's probably not a Core deck despite technically meeting the deck-building rules. And that's where the descriptions shared in the first article (which you can find here) really come into play and why they are vital. Those are far more important than just looking down a checklist and making sure your deck doesn't violate any of the rules.

Is it imperfect because it requires people to gauge their own decks? Yes, absolutely. There will always be some of that. But using the descriptions to direct you should point you toward the bracket your deck sits in.

As time has gone on, this notion has trickled out through content creators and social media, and I think a lot of players out there are beginning to understand this piece. But I really want to emphasize it. It's on each of you to be as honest as you can in evaluating your deck. Don't be afraid to bracket up or at least have a pregame conversation about what your deck is trying to do. And if you're building your deck to be technically in bounds by the card guidelines but substantially stronger than what other people are doing at that bracket so you can stomp them, then you are being a bad actor.

Okay, with that said, let's move to the Game Changers list.

Game Changers Delistings

Commander Game Changers

In evaluating the Game Changers list and reading all of your feedback, we not only wanted to add cards but also ensure the initial list was pulling its weight.

In reading community feedback, two cards generally stood out as out of place to people. And we're taking them off the list today.

The first card being delisted is Trouble in Pairs. This card has certainly emerged as a standout card since it was released about a year ago. While it can draw a lot of cards, it's on par with some cards that are not on the list. The general feeling is that it is just slightly under the bar for the Game Changers list and that we probably jumped the starting line a little on this one. It's plausible it could get added back in the future as the list evolves and we receive more feedback.

The second card being delisted is Trinisphere. This card is not the most fun card to play against—no denying that. However, it tends to be strongest at the highest power levels, like Optimized (Bracket 4) and cEDH (Bracket 5). There are many cards on the level of unfun Stax pieces, like Sphere of Resistance, Rule of Law, and Nether Void, that aren't on the Game Changers list, and generally, if your deck is trying to lock other players out in a Stax style, that's a play pattern that doesn't match the intent of Bracket 2 and you should bracket up. If you want to play a single fair Trinisphere, it may be a little frustrating but ultimately reasonable.

Game Changers Additions

By far, some of the loudest feedback was to please add more Game Changers. So, we looked through everything we were sent, discussed a lot as a group, and solicited suggestions from the Commander Design team. Today, we will be adding several cards to the list.

Here are the eighteen cards we are adding:

  • Teferi's Protection
  • Humility
  • Narset, Parter of Veils
  • Intuition
  • Consecrated Sphinx
  • Necropotence
  • Orcish Bowmasters
  • Notion Thief
  • Deflecting Swat
  • Gamble
  • Worldly Tutor
  • Crop Rotation
  • Seedborn Muse
  • Natural Order
  • Food Chain
  • Aura Shards
  • Field of the Dead
  • Mishra's Workshop

I'll now cover why each one met our bar for inclusion.

Teferi's Protection

While ultimately a defensive spell, if you want to talk about cards that are quite definitionally game changing, this is one of them. It protects you completely. Much like Cyclonic Rift, Teferi's Protection saves you from targeting while freely making big plays or attacks without risk. It is certainly a Game Changer.

Humility

This card slows the game down to a crawl, disabling everyone's creatures and shutting down a card type that everybody has likely built their deck around. In comparison to Trinisphere, a fair Trinisphere forces people to pay some more mana; even a fair Humility tossed onto the board will usually make games massively frustrating to play.

Narset, Parter of Veils; Orcish Bowmasters; and Notion Thief

While punishing additional card draw is a reasonable thing to have in a game of Commander, these are particularly aggravating to encounter. At best, these are frustrating to play against; at worst, they combo with wheels to do some nefarious things.

Intuition

Intuition is a very strong tutor, giving you one card and dumping two into the graveyard. While it's not always the exact card of the three you want, with redundancy, you're usually getting something strong, and it also stocks your graveyard in the process. Combine that with the fact that it can be a "one-card combo" in the right deck, and that brings it up to Game Changer status.

Consecrated Sphinx

This is a must-kill threat at most Commander tables. Untapping with a Sphinx and the six or more cards you've drawn by the time it gets back to your turn puts you dramatically ahead. Additionally, the gameplay of other players cloning it and then allowing them to each draw as many cards as the other will allow is not the best gameplay. This fits right in as a Game Changer.

Necropotence

Though it does cost to cast, once down, the ability to turn as much of your 40-point life total into cards as you want is extremely powerful. This has been one of the most requested additions, and we were happy to add it to the list.

Deflecting Swat

Strong, free countermagic made the list previously, and this often does the job of free countermagic and more. It's deserving of a spot on the list.

Gamble, Crop Rotation, and Worldly Tutor

The lower brackets do carry the restriction of "few tutors" already. However, one-mana tutors that can search up a wide array of cards are some of the most efficient out there, and like Imperial Seal, Mystical Tutor, and others, these are in line with that. We may be revising the notes around tutoring on brackets in the future, but for the time being, we wanted to get these three large swings onto the list.

Seedborn Muse

This card causes you to take what is essentially, when built properly, three additional turns worth of effects each turn cycle. It also causes one player to take a disproportionate amount of time in the game.

It is worth calling out here that, yes, Seedborn Muse was just in the Abzan Armor deck from Tarkir: Dragonstorm. First, this was finalized long ago before Commander Brackets existed. Second, I'll use this moment as a reminder that Core (Bracket 2) is on the level of an average, modern-day preconstructed Commander deck, but that doesn't mean there can't be some variance there. We are looking at updating the terminology in the future to pull away from preconstructed Commander decks as a benchmark, as we understand that has caused some confusion. I just want to be clear that we know about the collision in Tarkir: Dragonstorm and want to avoid that seeming like a mixed message.

Natural Order

This is one of the strongest ways you can cheat out big creatures early. Natural Order cheats mana and acts as an efficient tutor all in one.

Food Chain

People tend not to play fairly with Food Chain. It mostly fuels infinite combos, and while those are kept out of the first two brackets, it still feels worth calling out and limiting as a Game Changer slot for Bracket 3.

Aura Shards

While it is important to have limiters on artifacts and enchantments in games of Commander, some cards can go overboard. Aura Shards is a permanent source of removal, consistently destroying build-around cards, mana rocks, and even the odd creature. Many popular deck archetypes have trouble fighting through an Aura Shards—especially since it's in a color pair full of putting creatures onto the board. While a one-shot sweeper like Vandalblast is totally reasonable, this persistent effect on the game is something we wanted to hit.

Field of the Dead

It takes so little for a land to be strong. Though it only makes colorless mana and enters tapped, getting Field of the Dead online is incredibly easy. Once you do that, with fetch lands, additional land drops, and more, this land can churn out three or more Zombie tokens a turn. Which doesn't sound too wild … until you consider that, once again, it's a land. Those Zombies protect your life total and close out games. It was strong enough to make the Game Changers list for us.

Mishra's Workshop

Though not highly played due to its difficulty to acquire, a land that taps for three mana for artifacts definitely meets some of the restrictions we put around fast mana and belongs on the Game Changers list.

Cards Not Changed

I also wanted to take some time to talk about things that weren't put on or taken off, and why. Reading through community feedback, there have been a ton of cards mentioned, and we wanted to get to some of those today.

The first I want to tackle categorically are legendary creatures. Originally, we had a couple of others flagged for inclusion. However, ultimately there are a lot of powerful commanders out there, and your commander is the one face-up thing everybody knows before the game started. It's an easy road to start adding Korvold, Edgar, Ur-Dragon, Jodah, Atraxa … and before you know it, a ton of favorite commanders are on that list. Before adding more commanders from not being on any list to the Game Changers list, we want to do more work on the philosophy around what makes a commander a Game Changer.

To be transparent, my current leading idea is that a commander is a Game Changer if it creates play patterns or game constraints that are unfun and overwhelmingly powerful or if it qualifies by virtue of being a Game Changer in the other 99 cards of a Commander deck. A commander that is just incredibly powerful would not qualify for the Game Changers list. So, in this world, cards like Tergrid and Grand Arbiter would remain on the list because of the experience they engender, while cards like Yuriko and Urza would likely come off because they're solely about power.

This is something we would love your feedback on, and we have elected to not take action on any commanders at this time. You will likely see some changes in the next update to the Game Changers list.

Now with that out of the way, let's go through some specific cards.

Farewell

This is an incredibly powerful and catch-all board wipe. It can be frustrating to have the game reset in this fashion. However, as a six-mana reset button, it does also help curb people getting of hand just the same. It's a card we have our eye on, but we do not place it as a Game Changer currently.

Alms Collector

You may not have asked about this card, but we did want to bring it up because of the cards that did make the list. We elected to not hit this card along with Notion Thief, Narset, and Bowmasters because it only punishes drawing more than one card, not additional draws, and still refunds a single draw on them … on top of being in the color identity that doesn't tend to naturally pair with these effects.

Mana Drain

It is certainly a powerful counterspell! This is strongest in the mid- to late game, acting as a counterspell that gives you a mana boost. While both of those things are powerful, a one-time surge of mana can be fun and is unlikely to warp the game when it happens later in the game.

Mystic Remora

We talked about this card a good deal. Ultimately, the feeling was that this is strongest at the tables of high-power Magic and weaker at the lower brackets as it stood. This is still a card on our radar, but we did not add it this time.

Force of Will

This is a card currently on the list we talked about removing. We elected to leave it for now. It does put you down a card, but it is still an incredibly powerful way to protect whatever you are doing on your own turn, and the ability to hit opponents' commanders and large creatures even while tapped out is notable. We have elected to leave it for now.

Timetwister and Wheel of Fortune

These are powerful rates for these effects, and rate can have an impact on cards on the list—for example, Demonic Tutor is on the list and Diabolic Tutor is not. However, these cards are often fun when played on their own, just not as much in conjunction with cards like Notion Thief or Narset. Our hope is that by knocking down the strongest of those, it will reduce the unfun things these cards do. If you want to use these in your Nekusar deck alongside Underworld Dreams, that's still fine.

Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos

In small doses these are fun, but when pushed to the limit, they are frustrating. They do require some setup to be at their strongest, and opponents to not have tokens or other small materials to sacrifice. We elected to not do anything to them at this time, but if you think these enchantments should categorically be on the list, please let us know.

Necrodominance

With Necropotence going on the list, we discussed this card as well. We decided it does not reach the same bar as Necropotence does, but we could imagine looking at it in the future if its play rate increases.

Craterhoof Behemoth

It is certainly true that this card can end games. However, for an eight-mana green creature, it is acceptable to end the game this way. While cheating it out early by way of something like Natural Order is a problem, a long-game Craterhoof is something we believe is acceptable.

The Great Henge

This one had people on both sides. It can absolutely take over a game and let a player snowball in card advantage. It can also be interacted with, requiring some setup to be able to cast and use, and is a card that embodies green in many ways. It is a powerful card on the battlefield, make no mistake about it, but it is promoting a bunch of things that are generally fun in Commander. We elected to not touch it at this time and welcome your feedback.

Green Sun's Zenith, Chord of Calling, and Finale of Devestation

We wanted to hit Natural Order because of its ability to tutor anything for four mana directly onto the battlefield. These tutors do find something, but not at nearly as efficient of a rate and the "few tutors" restriction should ideally keep lower brackets from filling their decks with these.

Tooth and Nail

This can be a game ender and is similar to Craterhoof in terms of cost. It takes nine mana to entwine, which is an appropriate way for games to end, especially noting, again, that there are no infinite combos at Bracket 2.

Defense of the Heart

The setup for this one is much more minimal than Tooth and Nail, asking an opponent to have three creatures. However, it does take a turn to go off, creating plenty of moments for counterplay, and is hard to make happen early where it's most powerful.

Sol Ring

There has been some discourse around whether Sol Ring should be a Game Changer, and if all decks should be allowed one Game Changer. While we're not doing system-level changes at this time, I want to reemphasize what I said in the previous article that Sol Ring is a huge face of Commander, handed down from Sheldon himself, and we are not planning to change or restrict it at this time.

In terms of the "every deck gets one Game Changer card" discussion, an important piece of the Game Changers list involves creating a safety bubble. If you don't want to have to play against Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, or Cyclonic Rift, you have a bracket you can play at where won't. Allowing everybody to play one flies in the face of that.

Next Steps

We want to give the brackets and the updated list of Game Changers time to soak in and settle. While we do anticipate making nudges to the Game Changers list in the future, a massive addition like you've seen today is not something we generally want to do. Our goal today was to expand upon what was laid out, then see what the community's response is. We want to just let those sit for a while. You shouldn't expect anything until sometime after MagicCon: Las Vegas around June 20–22.

In the meantime, we would like to use the remainder of this year to focus on writing and crystalizing Commander Brackets and the Game Changer philosophy, listen and build out the bracket system further with some eventual small tweaks, and return to regular, more typical communications with all of you. If you're wondering about future bans and unbans, there will be no more announced this calendar year as stated in today's announcement.

To keep up regular touchpoints with all of you, we're going to be reinstating the quarterly check-ins that the former Commander Rules Committee used to do. Sometimes they will be short, sometimes they will be a little lengthier. But I think it's a great thing to do for communication and keeping you all informed of what we're working on.

So, given all of that, you can expect the next update in late June or early July. We'll let you know about any tweaks to the Game Changers list at that time, the state of Commander Brackets, and any other updates somewhere around then.

In Summary

This is a long article, and while there is a lot of detail here, I also want to make sure it has clear takeaways for those who aren't diving in as deep, so here's a summary:

  • Early information and data on Commander Brackets is very encouraging!
  • We are not changing any of the structure around Commander Brackets at this time. The bracket system is still in the beta stage, and you can expect structure-level changes later this year as brackets continue to be used and we have a better idea of what is sticking.
  • We are removing two cards from the list and adding eighteen. This is something that has been consistently asked for and does not require you to relearn the brackets.
  • As detailed in the banned and restricted announcement, we are unbanning five cards: Braids, Cabal Minion; Coalition Victory; Gifts Ungiven; Panoptic Mirror; and Sway of the Stars. Those cards will also become Game Changers. There will not be any bans for the rest of this year, save for something new that shows up and needs quick action, like Nadu. Go read that article for more information.
  • We want to do quarterly check-ins, and the next one is being targeted for late June or early July.

As of today, this brings us to the following for the complete Game Changers list:

  • Drannith Magistrate
  • Enlightened Tutor
  • Humility
  • Serra's Sanctum
  • Smothering Tithe
  • Teferi's Protection
  • Consecrated Sphinx
  • Cyclonic Rift
  • Expropriate
  • Force of Will
  • Fierce Guardianship
  • Gifts Ungiven
  • Intuition
  • Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
  • Mystical Tutor
  • Narset, Parter of Veils
  • Rhystic Study
  • Sway of the Stars
  • Thassa's Oracle
  • Urza, Lord High Artificer
  • Bolas's Citadel
  • Braids, Cabal Minion
  • Demonic Tutor
  • Imperial Seal
  • Necropotence
  • Opposition Agent
  • Orcish Bowmasters
  • Tergrid, God of Fright
  • Vampiric Tutor
  • Ad Nauseam
  • Deflecting Swat
  • Gamble
  • Jeska's Will
  • Underworld Breach
  • Crop Rotation
  • Food Chain
  • Gaea's Cradle
  • Natural Order
  • Seedborn Muse
  • Survival of the Fittest
  • Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
  • Worldly Tutor
  • Aura Shards
  • Coalition Victory
  • Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
  • Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
  • Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
  • Notion Thief
  • Winota, Joiner of Forces
  • Ancient Tomb
  • Chrome Mox
  • Field of the Dead
  • Glacial Chasm
  • Grim Monolith
  • Lion's Eye Diamond
  • Mana Vault
  • Mishra's Workshop
  • Mox Diamond
  • Panoptic Mirror
  • The One Ring
  • The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

Commanding Forward

There's a ton of information in today's article, showing a lot of our thoughts and the results of a ton of discussion from the panel. I hope you found this deep look and discussion insightful and feel like you understand our rationale for the decisions made today.

I really want to thank the Commander Format Panel for their hard work here: they have been putting in a ton of time discussing, debating, and working toward conclusions on all of this. And while not every person necessarily agrees on every piece put forward in this article, there are lots of little pieces from each member baked in here.

As has been mentioned several times in this article, your feedback is critical to us, and we've made a lot of changes here based on it. In addition to messaging us on social media or telling us in person, there is an official channel in the Magic: The Gathering Discord for sharing your thoughts. (You can find the link here.) Magic's community managers will be capturing feedback and sending it our way.

Additionally, there will be a WeeklyMTG stream today at 10 a.m. You're welcome to come and join, and I'll be answering questions on stream as well as a Discord AMA in the same channel mentioned above, later this week.

Thanks for playing Commander, reading through this, and for being a part of the community. On behalf of the whole panel, we thank you.

This has been Gavin Verhey, on behalf of the entire Commander Format Panel:

Attack on Cardboard
Bandit
Ben 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