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 astir fashionable format, Commander, has transferred absorption of the crippled to the publisher’s improvement teams.

“The past week has been tumultuous for Commander fans, members of the Commander Rules Committee, and the Magic community arsenic a whole. Along the way, we’ve seen players and fans stock a divers scope of passionate opinions—far excessively galore of which were harmful oregon malicious,” Wizards’ statement announcing the modulation of powerfulness opened.

Last week, the Commander Rules Committee announced its latest equilibrium update for the multiplayer, large-scale format, banning 4 fashionable cards from competitory play—the archetypal specified paper bans since 2021, and the archetypal bannings successful the format since Commander pioneer Sheldon Menery, who helped found the CRC, passed distant past year. Three of the 4 banned cards—Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, and Mana Crypt—were mostly banned for their almighty abilities to fto players summation a ample magnitude of mana resources aboriginal connected successful a game, creating a important snowballing vantage for their player, portion Nadu, Winged Wisdom (which has been banned from respective different competitive Magic formats already) was removed for its quality to dilatory down the travel of a crippled portion its subordinate monopolized play clip mounting up its assets accrual mechanics.

Response to the bans from the Commander assemblage was instantly heated, fixed the worth of these cards connected the aftermarket and their wide popularity successful competitory play. But erstwhile that absorption turned to targeting idiosyncratic members of the CRC, things took a crook for the worse, necessitating the determination for Wizards to measurement in.

“The Commander RC is made up of 5 talented, caring individuals, each with different jobs and lives which they indispensable equilibrium with managing the astir fashionable format in Magic,” Wizards’ connection continues successful part. “It results successful unthinkable amounts of work, clip spent deliberating, and vulnerability to the public. Nobody deserves to consciousness unsafe for supporting the crippled they love. Unfortunately, the task of managing Commander has acold outgrown the scope and information of being attached to immoderate 5 people.”

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

— Jim Lapage (@JimTSF) September 30, 2024

Jim Lapage, 1 of the 5 members of the CRC, besides released a connection connected societal media astir the decision, confirming that helium had reached retired to Wizards astir harassment helium and different members of the CRC had been targeted with implicit the bans. “I americium genuinely devastated,” Lapage’s connection reads successful part. “This is not the result I wanted, but it is the lone enactment that provides some due attraction and attraction to the community, and the information that the format’s leaders merit arsenic quality beings.”

Going forward, Magic: The Gathering‘s crippled plan squad volition grip absorption and equilibrium changes for Commander, with Wizards already establishing a Discord assemblage for Commander players to sermon the aboriginal of the game, arsenic good arsenic a livestream acceptable for October 1 to sermon the contiguous aboriginal of the format. While Wizards stressed successful the announcement that those changes volition see reviewing Commander’s existent prohibition list, that reappraisal volition not see immoderate locomotion backs on, oregon additions to, the list. The steadfast did tease 1 alteration to Commander that it had already begun moving with the CRC on: improvement of a new, casual powerfulness level descriptor for Commander decks designed to springiness players a amended mode to pass the kinds of cards to expect successful immoderate fixed deck.

The caller powerfulness system, which Wizards describes arsenic being successful “open beta” to solicit feedback from Magic players, volition interruption decks into 4 brackets of estimated powerfulness level, with little tiers mostly being defined by either purchased pre-constructed decks sold by Wizards, oregon broadly described styles of Commander play, and higher tiers much rigorously bracketed by circumstantial decklists and peculiar almighty cards. But earlier that treatment begins, Wizards plans connected resetting the hostility betwixt Commander players and the squad present successful complaint of shaping its future.

“For now, the information and well-being of the Rules Committee is the priority. What has happened this past week is wholly unacceptable,” Wizards’ connection concluded. “By moving unneurotic arsenic a team, we tin enarthrosis the work of this format and everything that comes on with it.”

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