Lead Magic: The Gathering staff have promised that the new Commander committee organized by Wizards of the Coast will make “love of the game” a major priority when deciding future bans. In an official MTG YouTube video from October 2, vice president of game design Aaron Forsythe says that “making the game as fun as possible is the way we’re gonna make our money”. “Our motives should align with how most people enjoy the game.”
Since its inception in 2011, Commander has been a community-run MTG format. Until recently, an independent, volunteer-run Commander Rules Committee was responsible for updating the MTG Commander banlist. After three controversial bans led to “unacceptable personal threats to safety of members of the Commander Rules Committee, Wizards of the Coast announced it was taking over the responsibility of Commander rulings.
“The Rules Committee are five people who are so incredible, so dedicated to magic, and have done such a great job shepherding Commander”, says principal game designer Gavin Verhey. “But this is a huge role, and they’re volunteers.” “The amount of problematic messages they were receiving and the impact it was having on their lives was immense”, he adds.
“We at Wizards have a lot of resources and can dedicate ourselves full-time to working on this stuff, so we started talking about different paths forward”, Verhey explains in Tuesday’s video. “We all reached the conclusion together that the best way forward was for them to give us the format. It was not an easy decision to reach.”
These decisions have been made in the space of just a few days, and Verhey acknowledges that “not all the steps are totally clear” at this point. Wizards of the Coast shares its ideas for managing the MTG banlist for Commander, but Verhey stresses that these cookies are still in the proverbial oven.
“The most important thing to us is that, although we’re managing the format, it remains a community format”, he says. “That is how we have gotten where we are today.”
When asked about community concerns regarding corporate ownership of the Commander rules, Forsythe asserts that “I am also here for the love of the game, as is everyone on my team”. “Yes, Hasbro wants things. Yes, my boss wants things”. However, Forsythe says “I have a lot of freedom to execute, as I see fit, what I think is the best thing for Magic as a whole”.
“Our goal is to make this thing last forever”, he continues. “Our goal is to grow it, but we can’t make decisions that turn off the community”. “If there are things that we have done that make [the game] less enjoyable, then we will address them – that’s how we plan to run the banlist.”
Verhey and Forsythe discuss a range of proposed changes to the Commander Rules Committee in the video above, with power brackets for cards and a panel similar to that of the Pauper format. One thing is clear, though – the banlist as it stands will be reconsidered.
“We’re going to reevaluate the banlist”, Verhey says. “We’re not going to be banning any cards as part of that. Whether or not cards will be getting unbanned is unclear – we’re still having those discussions.” “One thing that is important to me is that the community is part of that”, he adds, “so I want to wait until the panel is up and running so we can talk with them about it”.
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Source: Wargamer
