Gavin Verhey used today’s episode of Good Morning Magic to answer why there isn’t a Werewolf Commander deck coming with Innistrad: Midnight Hunt.
The two Commander decks from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt are named Coven Counters and Undead Unleashed, but there’s a notable lack of a Werewolf deck from the Werewolf set. The first issue comes down to using double-faced cards, because so many Werewolves in Magic are DFCs. As of today, Commander decks haven’t used DFCs, as printing them are tricky and create problems with fixed deck products (only a few Challenger decks have included them before). If production only allows a certain number of DFCs, it will severely limit the amount of Werewolves that could be in the Werewolf Commander deck.
The other main concern is materials. Many players buy Commander decks to play right out of the box and often times without sleeving the cards. Playing DFCs without sleeves is a no-no and that puts the player in a spot where they need to buy sleeves or use a bunch of checklist cards. Production and play experience are big hurdles to overcome with Commander decks, so for the time being there won’t be any DFCs showing up in them. Players getting into their first Commander game and having to sleeve and use checklist cards isn’t a great introduction to the game. While it isn’t likely anytime soon, Verhey did say there could be a day when DFCs show up in Commander decks.
Lastly, Commander decks are also are a great way to showcase certain themes and mechanics from a main set and give them more love. Innistrad: Midnight Hunt will already have a ton of Werewolves, so there isn’t a need to flesh out more Werewolf themes in an extra product. Instead, the Commander decks will explore more themes that don’t get as much of the spotlight from the main set.