Wizards Takes Over Magic’s Commander Format After Card Bans, Death Threats

Wizards of the Coast has announced that the community-managed rules committee for Magic: The Gathering‘s most popular format, Commander, has transferred management of the game to the publisher’s development teams.

“The past week has been tumultuous for Commander fans, members of the Commander Rules Committee, and the Magic community as a whole. Along the way, we’ve seen players and fans share a diverse range of passionate opinions—far too many of which were harmful or malicious,” Wizards’ statement announcing the transition of power opened.

Last week, the Commander Rules Committee announced its latest balance update for the multiplayer, large-scale format, banning four popular cards from competitive play—the first such card bans since 2021, and the first bannings in the format since Commander pioneer Sheldon Menery, who helped establish the CRC, passed away last year. Three of the four banned cards—Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, and Mana Crypt—were largely banned for their powerful abilities to let players gain a large amount of mana resources early on in a game, creating a significant snowballing advantage for their player, while Nadu, Winged Wisdom (which has been banned from several other competitive Magic formats already) was removed for its ability to slow down the flow of a game while its player monopolized play time setting up its resource accrual mechanics.

Response to the bans from the Commander community was immediately heated, given the value of these cards on the aftermarket and their general popularity in competitive play. But when that reaction turned to targeting individual members of the CRC, things took a turn for the worse, necessitating the decision for Wizards to step in.

“The Commander RC is made up of five talented, caring individuals, all with other jobs and lives which they must balance with managing the most popular format in Magic,” Wizards’ statement continues in part. “It results in incredible amounts of work, time spent deliberating, and exposure to the public. Nobody deserves to feel unsafe for supporting the game they love. Unfortunately, the task of managing Commander has far outgrown the scope and safety of being attached to any five people.”

https://t.co/8dko6fzn0t pic.twitter.com/YcgkP0SQoH

— Jim Lapage (@JimTSF) September 30, 2024

Jim Lapage, one of the five members of the CRC, also released a message on social media about the decision, confirming that he had reached out to Wizards about harassment he and other members of the CRC had been targeted with over the bans. “I am truly devastated,” Lapage’s statement reads in part. “This is not the outcome I wanted, but it is the only option that provides both appropriate care and attention to the community, and the safety that the format’s leaders deserve as human beings.”

Going forward, Magic: The Gathering‘s game design team will handle management and balance changes for Commander, with Wizards already establishing a Discord community for Commander players to discuss the future of the game, as well as a livestream set for October 1 to discuss the immediate future of the format. While Wizards stressed in the announcement that those changes will include reviewing Commander’s current ban list, that review will not include any walk backs on, or additions to, the list. The publisher did tease one change to Commander that it had already begun working with the CRC on: development of a new, casual power level descriptor for Commander decks designed to give players a better way to communicate the kinds of cards to expect in any given deck.

The new power system, which Wizards describes as being in “open beta” to solicit feedback from Magic players, will break decks into four brackets of estimated power level, with lower tiers largely being defined by either purchased pre-constructed decks sold by Wizards, or broadly described styles of Commander play, and higher tiers more rigorously bracketed by specific decklists and particular powerful cards. But before that discussion begins, Wizards plans on resetting the tension between Commander players and the team now in charge of shaping its future.

“For now, the safety and well-being of the Rules Committee is the priority. What has happened this past week is entirely unacceptable,” Wizards’ statement concluded. “By working together as a team, we can shoulder the responsibility of this format and everything that comes along with it.”

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