With Commander Legends previews starting next week, Gavin Verhey used today’s episode of Good Morning Magic to explain how to draft the new set he pitched to Wizards of the Coast (WotC) six years ago.
With each pack having twenty cards in it, players take two cards at a time as they open and pass the packs. This was implemented to make the draft go a bit faster but also to emphasize the ability find and play cool combos, something Commander is all about. If you draft with six to eight players, Verhey recommends splitting into two pods to play after the draft while playing one big game with four to five players. If you have three or fewer players he recommends playing Sealed deck.
Once the draft is over, build a Commander deck with 60 cards instead of the usual 100. The singleton rule doesn’t apply so players don’t have to keep track of all of their picks and so they can play with their fun cards they got multiples of. Decks have to adhere to their Commander color identities, but with each pack having two legends it shouldn’t be hard to assemble. And even if a player doesn’t find the right legend, everyone has access to The Prismatic Piper to tie any deck together.
From there, all other Commander rules work. Players have 40 life, a Commander deck, and casting legends from the Command zone, etc. Verhey noted at the end that the power level for games will feel much different than normal games of Commander, just like how normal draft is different than Standard.
Verhey will be making another video Friday with six more hints for what to expect in Commander Legends. Verhey will also be uploading a new video every day next with a preview card in each episode.