Commander is by far MTG’s most popular format, and it has a very unique set of rules compared to traditional Constructed formats. It’s singleton, it uses 100 cards, and of course, your Commander itself gets its own collection of rules that make the format so interesting.
However, in some cases, the rules can be a bit restrictive on what you can and can’t play. One big example is that, due to a lack of sideboards, cards like Wish do basically nothing in EDH.This is certainly a bit awkward. There are a few different ways to fix this situation, but each method has its pros and cons.
Recently, a player mentioned on MTG head designer Mark Rosewater’s Blogatog page that they longed for a rules change to make these types of cards work in Commander. Comments suggest this is a more controversial issue that one might think. Making Wish-style cards work in EDH isn’t difficult, but it does have its consequences no matter how you slice it.
Options for Changes
Cards like Wish don’t work in EDH for one specific reason: you don’t have a sideboard in Commander. This inherently makes sense, as Commander isn’t a best-of-three format. In the majority of instances, there’s no reason why a sideboard would be needed.
That being said, introducing a sideboard to EDH would give cards like Wish targets during a game. Cards that involve selecting other cards “from outside the game” specifically refer to sideboards, and Wish is far from the only card that cares about this.
Learn cards like Divide by Zero also fit the bill. These cards get a lot of mileage out of their versatility, but that’s only true if you have a handful of Lessons to choose from upon casting them.
At first, it may seem weird to advocate for a sideboard in an environment where you don’t change the contents of your “maindeck.” Yet, that’s exactly how best-of-one works on MTG Arena. Players get to select 7 cards to make up their sideboard if relevant in order to allow Learn cards, Wishes, and Companions to function properly. Commander could easily follow suit if there was enough interest.
The other way to make Wish cards work would be to let them grab cards from exile. Technically, the exile zone doesn’t count for cards like that, unless specifically worded otherwise, like with Karn, the Great Creator.
This could be an interesting change, but as drecon84 points out in the comments of the Blogatog post, changing this rule just for Commander and not for other formats is far from ideal. Not to mention, this doesn’t help the existence of Lessons, which is a bit awkward.
Benefits to a Change
The key to deciding whether or not a sideboard should exist in Commander or a rules change should be made for Wish cards comes down to the range of positive and negative effects associated. With regards to adopting a sideboard, there are a handful of benefits that come with a change like that.
First, it would create additional consistency. Many newer players learn to play MTG on Arena in a best-of-one setting. Having similar rules apply regarding sideboards in Standard best-of-one as well as Brawl or paper Commander best-of-one seems natural.
On top of that, as exalted-boda mentions, players can already play Companions from outside the game. It seems like a minor fix on the surface to include a handful of cards to wish for in a similar zone.
The second plus to adding a sideboard is that you simply add more deckbuilding options to the players. Being able to craft Wish boards adds another element of creativity in Commander, which is nice.
As far as being able to grab cards from exile, this adds neat corner case scenarios to cards like Wish. For instance, in Commander, if your opponent has one of your cards locked under Banishing Light, you could get it back without needing enchantment removal.
Major Downsides
The problem is that making a change would not come without consequences. Right off the bat, adding a sideboard will naturally make Commander even more tutor-focused. Tutors are incredibly powerful in Commander. The downside of playing singleton and 100 cards is that you see your best cards less often. Tutors override this issue.
There are many players like singerofw that aren’t fans of this aspect of Commander to begin with, and adding a sideboard to enable Wish, Karn, and more only heightens those feelings. There’s a good chance combo decks would only get better with more tutor options at their disposal, too.
Furthermore, keicowku brings up the fact that cards like Wish would likely become homogenous in Commander, since there’s little downside associated with adding a sideboard in order to play some extra tutors. After all, you aren’t at risk of drawing any of your sideboard cards normally during the game. So, it’s rather free to put an array of different cards there that will be good in specific situations.
Personally, I think involving yet more tutors into Commander is a net negative for the format. I also feel changing these tutors to be able to select cards from exile isn’t really worth the risk when it comes to formats beyond Commander.
The fact that Mark Rosewater is opening this up to community discussion is notable, though. It seems that while most players are not in favor letting Wish cards grab other cards from exile, the majority are in favor of implementing a small sideboard. So, it’s worth monitoring if these discussions go any further. Anything is possible.
