On Monday, when Wizards of the Coast made the shock announcement it was assuming control of Magic: The Gathering’s Commander format, it also spoke about the new four-tier system it is developing to help players determine their deck’s power level and have easier pre-game conversations.
In a WeeklyMTG stream on Tuesday, designers Gavin Verhey and Aaron Forsythe and communications director Blake Rasmussen discussed the idea further, and shared some of the MTG cards that would be found in each bracket.
Level 4, the highest power bracket, has “the strongest cards you can play in Commander and many cards players don’t want in their game”.
The cards suggested at this level are Vampiric Tutor, one of the best MTG tutors which can make a deck far more consistent, and Armageddon, a mass land destruction card that’ll get you stink-eye if you play it at virtually any casual table.
One tier down, at level 3, Wizards has placed Personal Tutor, a more restrictive tutor that can only fetch up a single card type, and Drannith Magistrate, a stax card that’s easy to remove but stops players from being able to cast their commanders.
Level 2 has Fabricate, another restrictive tutor that costs three mana, and Thalia, a white card that’s pretty gentle as stax goes.
Meanwhile, level 1 has cards “that any deck could conceivably play… often staple-y cards that we put in MTG precons all the time”. Examples include Swords to Plowshares, Grave Titan, and Cultivate.
Where does Sol Ring fall? Some fans have argued that since the bans were designed to crack down on fast mana then Sol Ring should be penalized too, and placed at least at tier 4, but the designers are clear that isn’t going to happen.
“Sol Ring is the iconic Commander card… People identify it with the format,” says Verhey. “I would expect Sol Ring to be almost bracket zero if that makes sense”.
However, Verhey also said Wizards was trying to avoid making ubiquitous cards that go into every deck: no more Sol Rings, Arcane Signets, or Command Towers.
Wizards of the Coast is clear that everything is still in motion when it comes to the bracket system, and it’s seeking community input on how cards should be ranked.
One reason for this, Rasmussen says, is: “I don’t know that it’s going to be a strictly power level sort of thing.” He gives the example of Lotus Petal – not the most powerful mana accelerant, but a card that raises eyebrows, and might warrant a higher place on the table than might be expected.
Forsythe agrees, and points out that Polluted Delta is one of the most powerful cards in Commander, but it’ll be placed in tier 1.
Verhey speaks to this more, talking about the different kinds of cards that can make it to top tier. Vampiric Tutor is an obvious level 4 card, found in the most competitive decks, the cream of the crop in our cEDH tier list. Meanwhile, “Armageddon is not really played in something like cEDH but it’s still a card that you really want to opt into.”
Another sign that Wizards is looking at the perceived toxicity of cards as much as their power is how it’s focused quite strongly on Stax cards in its list of examples.
However, the list is still taking shape – nothing is set in stone, not even the number of brackets. Verhey says: “It’s pretty easy for us to move some stuff around with proper communication – it might take us a little bit of time to get it right.”
Wizards plans to provide more news on Commander later this month, One thing I’m hoping is it doesn’t decide to unban the cards axed by the RC. At any rate, in this stream the designers declared they did not want to create multiple Commander banlists.
Source: Wargamer
