While there have been some minor changes over the years, Magic: The Gathering’s Commander format has stayed largely consistent since its inception. 100-card decks, no duplicates, four-plus player pods. This formula has produced the most popular format Magic has ever seen. Messing with such a winning formula, then, is a hugely risky endeavor. That’s exactly what Wizards of the Coast is doing come August, however, as they debut the Commander Box League for MTG.
This is the first in a new wave of in-store events for Commander. While still not competitively sanctioned, these events give stores more structure to work with when running events for the game’s biggest format. The first one is a bit of a wild card, too, removing many of Commander’s core rules in favor of a more Limited-adjacent experience. Whether this experiment will work out remains to be seen, especially given how pricey these new events will likely be. That said, it’s exciting to see Wizards make more of in-store Commander, in any case.
Commander Box League Is Coming To MTG
Commander Box League was announced last Friday, in an article on the official MTG website. It’s the first in a series of “more specialized Commander events” that Wizards will be rolling out at WPN stores soon. The first rounds of this new format will take place from July 25th-31st, at the same time as Edge of Eternities Prerelease.
‘New format’ may sound like a stretch, but once you see the list of changes Commander Box League makes to the core Commander formula, you’ll understand. First of all, as the name implies, you only have the contents of an Edge of Eternities Play Booster Box to work with. This is a far cry from using your whole collection, as Commander players typically do.
Second, Box League removes many of the core restrictions of Commander as a format. Rather than building a 100-card deck, Box League only asks you to build one of 60 cards. There’s also no singleton restriction here. If you open multiple copies of a powerful card in your box, you can run them all in your deck.
Those cards don’t even need to be on-color with your chosen Commander. The official article states that you can “Play any legal commander you open, then fill your deck with cards of any color.” Color identity still applies for cards that explicitly reference it, like Arcane Signet, but that’s pretty unlikely to come up in a Standard set.
With all of these changes, this leaves Commander Box League feeling more like regular Sealed with a Commander rather than a new Commander variant. The changes are understandable from the perspective of helping things run smoothly. They do feel a bit like overcorrections at this early stage, mind you.
You Must Be This Rich To Ride
Whether the rules of Commander Box League appeal to you as an MTG player or not will come down to personal preference. What’s less subjective is the high barrier to entry that comes along with this new format. League events have been part of Magic: The Gathering for many years and have often been very popular. Typically, however, the investment required is only six packs, which is about $30 even today.
For Box League, you need to buy a full Booster Box in order to take part. That’s a much steeper cost, and one that has the potential to fluctuate from set to set. Edge of Eternities boxes, for example, are selling for about $120 on TCGPlayer right now. That’s four times the cost of a regular League event at a minimum.
This would be prohibitive at the best of times, but we’re also coming into the era of Universes Beyond sets in Standard. These sets have higher MSRPs on products than their regular counterparts, which are often pushed higher still by fan demand. If you wanted to take part in a Commander Box League for Final Fantasy, for example, you’d be looking at an entry fee of around $218. That’s a steep figure indeed for an in-store event, which is typically catered towards more of a casual audience.
What will ultimately tip the scales in terms of whether these events are worth it or not is Wizards’ choice of promo cards. Starting with Edge of Eternities, events like this will be the method through which Commander Play Party promos are distributed. For Final Fantasy, these were the excellent Culling Ritual and the okay Despark. If future promos are strong, Box League could be well worth doing.
More To Come
Commander Box League isn’t the only new twist on Commander coming soon to an MTG store near you. As the article states, this event is only the beginning of the more specialized takes on Commander we’ll be seeing going forward.
The other one we know for now is Two-Headed Giant Commander, also detailed in the article. This is much closer to regular Commander, with players building decks from their full collections. All the normal Commander rules apply here, including singleton and color restrictions. The only difference is that games are played in teams of two, as is the Two-Headed Giant norm.
As a BYOD (Bring Your Own Deck) format, Two-Headed Giant Commander should be much more accessible in terms of entry fee. This will make it a better method of acquiring the latest Commander Play Promos for most players. The article doesn’t mention when the first Two-Headed Giant Commander events will be held, so we’ll have to wait for more information.
Whichever one strikes your fancy more, it’s great to see Wizards take this step towards more involved Commander play experiences. As the game’s most popular format, something like this feels like a long-overdue switch-up. We’ll likely see more interesting variants in the near future, too, as new sets come and go.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!
