The February 11, 2025, WeeklyMTG stream on Twitch offered a first look at Commander Brackets, Wizards of the Coast’s upcoming approach to managing Magic: The Gathering’s Commander format.
Commander Brackets: Matchmaking Made Easier?
The Commander Brackets system, which the hosts repeatedly stressed was still a work in progress, proposes five power levels that will help players find the right level of game for their deck.
Level 1, “Exhibition”, has the most restrictions. A Level 1 deck may not have mass land denial, such as Armageddon, or any extra-turn cards, such as Time Warp. It also can’t run any two-card infinite combos, such as Sanguine Bond together with Exquisite Blood, or any cards on the “Game Changers” list (more on this later). A Level 1 deck should also run few “Tutor” cards that search for other, specific cards in one’s library, such as Demonic Tutor.
Higher levels loosen the deckbuilding restrictions:
- Level 2, “Core”, is around the power level of a preconstructed Commander deck sold in stores. A Level 2 deck may run extra-turn cards, but not chain multiple extra turns together; Time Warp is okay, but not Time Stretch or Capture of Jingzhou into Savor the Moment.
- Level 3, “Upgraded”, represents an adjusted but not fully tuned Commander deck. A Level 3 deck may have expensive two-card combinations to win late in games. It can also run up to three cards on the Game Changers list.
- Level 4, “Optimized”, is for powerful yet still socially-oriented Commander. There are no deckbuilding restrictions, other than the format’s rules and the Banned List of disallowed cards.
- Level 5, “cEDH”, is for fans of competitive Commander. Like Level 4, it has no deckbuilding restrictions. It offers an opt-in experience for players to approach Commander through lenses of metagames and domination.
What Are Game Changers?
Game Changers are cards that are extremely powerful, possibly negative for the Commander play experience, or both. While they have not yet been banned, Wizards of the Coast is monitoring these cards specifically as a “watch list”. Most cards banned in Commander in the future will have been on the Game Changers list, though emergency bans, such as that of Nadu, Winged Wisdom, are still possible. Cards unbanned in Commander almost certainly will go on the Game Changers list due to their proven power.
The cards on the Game Changers list are familiar to fans of high-powered Commander, including Smothering Tithe, Cyclonic Rift, Bolas’s Citadel, Underworld Breach, Survival of the Fittest, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, and Mox Diamond. Notably, Sol Ring, despite its power, is not on the initial list of Game Changers.
What’s Next?
As for the future of the Commander Banned List, Gavin Verhey strongly hinted that no new bans were in the immediate future, but multiple unbannings of cards that then would go on the Watch List were plausible.
Gavin 'predicts' that Commander unbans are coming in late April, but that nothing will be banned!
— Star City Games (@StarCityGames) February 11, 2025
Some currently banned cards will shift to the Game Changers list.#MTGCommander pic.twitter.com/6hSgHZkLSv
While fans of the cards most recently banned in Commander, especially Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, and Mana Crypt, the hosts offered no specific clues about any cards.
