Those who were expecting a quiet lull between the release of Duskmourn: House of Horror and MTG Foundations will be feeling pretty disappointed right about now. Last week, what are almost certainly the most important Commander bans of all time took place. This led to a huge controversy and serious financial losses, but the story isn’t over yet. Yesterday, Wizards announced that they would be taking over the Commander format from the Rules Committee. They also announced a brand new power level system for Commander, which has many MTG players both worried and confused.
Four Tiers Of Fun
This new system was mentioned in Wizards’ official announcement yesterday. Before we go any further in this discussion, it is worth noting that this is very much a work in process. By Wizards’ own admission, “It isn’t anywhere near finished yet,” but it is still out there, at least conceptually, for us to consider.
“Here’s the idea: There are four power brackets, and every Commander deck can be placed in one of those brackets by examining the cards and combinations in your deck and comparing them to lists we’ll need community help to create. You can imagine bracket one is the baseline of an average preconstructed deck or below and bracket four is high power.”
Wizards of the Coast
A four-tier system is interesting and is a lot more involved than what we have currently. Until now, there has been no kind of official ranking system for Commander power level in MTG. As a casual, non-tournament format, this wasn’t a big issue. Players typically built whatever they wanted and hashed out the details in a pregame conversation. This is where the often-mentioned ‘Rule Zero’ comes into play.
There was a distinction between normal and cEDH decks, but for most players, this wasn’t even a consideration. Now that Wizards is taking control, however, things are going to get a little more formal. How exactly will these four tiers be determined? Wizards gave a few scant details in the announcement.
“For the lower tiers, we may lean on a mixture of cards and a description of how the deck functions, and the higher tiers are likely defined by more explicit lists of cards. For example, you could imagine bracket one has cards that easily can go in any deck, like Swords to Plowshares, Grave Titan, and Cultivate, whereas bracket four would have cards like Vampiric Tutor, Armageddon, and Grim Monolith, cards that make games too much more consistent, lopsided, or fast than the average deck can engage with. In this system, your deck would be defined by its highest-bracket card or cards.”
Wizards of the Coast
There are a few ways to interpret this, but the basic idea seems to be to give every card in Commander a grade from one to four, and then look at a deck’s average score to determine its overall power level. Some cards will undoubtedly be weighted higher than others, however, especially on the high-power end of the spectrum. Later on in the article Wizards clarifies this. “For example, if Ancient Tomb is a bracket-four card, your deck would generally be considered a four.” They also mention that a deck could be a four with Ancient Tomb and a two without, so there’s a lot of weight being placed on the individual card here.
Chaos And Confusion
The ambiguity of these new rules has led to a lot of confusion in the community. If an individual card like Ancient Tomb can push a deck’s power level to the maximum alone, then where is the line drawn on similarly powerful cards?
“Super curious how Sol Ring would interact with the bracket idea. It seems like it has to be a 4, but then every precon would be a 4, which seems wrong on its face.”
Seth / SaffronOlive
This is a very valid point, and it encapsulates the difficulties Wizards is going to face as they enact this four-tier system. Sol Ring is clearly extremely powerful, probably on the same level as Mana Crypt overall. The only reason it escaped last week’s bans was because, according to the RC, it “defies the laws of physics in a way that no other card does.” If Ancient Tomb can singlehandedly spike a deck’s bracket, then why shouldn’t Sol Ring?
The intent here seems to be to raise a deck’s bracket based on combinations of cards rather than individuals, but that’s even more difficult to implement. Are players going to have to check their lists for specific combos? Will playing fast mana be allowed if the rest of the deck is nothing but jank? So far this is unclear, and logistically it seems impossible to implement.
Interestingly, there are some biases shining through even in these early reveals. In the old system, land destruction and fast mana were controversial, to say the least. The former was frowned upon everywhere, while the latter was at casual tables. By these new standards, both will now be considered high-tier, regardless of the mood of the playgroup. This seems like a smart move, but also potentially restrictive for certain player types.
Scores On The Door
It’s worth noting that, currently, Commander does kind of have a system like this already. Many Commander players grade their decks on a 1-10 scale. One is typically saved for a barely functional pile, while 10 is for a cEDH-viable list. This is a very informal and unofficial system, but it’s one that some players swear by. There are a ton of resources online supporting this system, including power level calculators and videos discussing which cards singlehandedly raise the power level of your deck.
In that sense, this unofficial system is quite similar to the new one Wizards is proposing. Single powerful cards can push your power level way up, and it’s difficult to account for synergies and interactions. This system can be useful, but it’s also inconsistent between playgroups. Most decks end up at power level seven, to the point where it’s become a bit of a meme in the community.
“Tier 2 is the new Power Level 7.”
echolog
Jokes aside, this proposed new power level system will likely have many of the same problems as the existing one. Perhaps even more so, since there are only four brackets available rather than 10. This leaves a lot less room for nuance about the power level of a specific card. Splitting the format into 10 different pools would, admittedly, probably be a bit much on an official level. Using only four may not achieve the desired effect, however.
Many players on Twitter and Reddit have proposed an alternative, points-based system for determining Commander power level, but it’s worth noting that this has been tried before. The Brawl format on MTG Arena uses a system like this, and it hasn’t been particularly successful. Players have figured out how to min-max the point values to sneak broken decks through, and they’d definitely do so in Commander as well.
A Step Forward?
As with all major MTG changes, this has proved divisive. Before we even fully know how it works, players have been decrying the change as the end of the Commander format as we know it.
“I think this is the worst thing that has ever happened to Commander. Previously despite WOTC reprinting or pushing cards with a profit incentive the rules committee could serve as an independent body whose only focus was the health of the game. The CRC banned Jeweled Lotus while Wizards were using it to sell packs.”
PearlWingsofJustice
The financial angle is certainly a valid concern. If Wizards is in charge of the bracket system, there’s a definite possibility that they assign new cards brackets in such a way that pushes products at the expense of format health. Players are rightly cynical about such developments given how eagerly the company has pursued tropey sets and Universes Beyond products recently.
Not everyone is so cynical, however. Some players see this as an important and necessary move for the format. Commander has been in a strange spot for a while now, being simultaneously massive and largely unregulated. With this new system, it could come more in line with the rest of Magic’s formats.
“This system sounds potentially really promising, and I’m glad that they’re doing it. Rule 0 as a freeform conversation doesn’t really work in untrusted environments, so having a classification system you can validate with should be way better.”
CertainDerision_33
This is also very valid. Commander is Magic’s most accessible format thanks to all the precons available. However, it’s also the one with the most hidden information for new players. There are a ton of unwritten rules about certain deck types, like Stax and land destruction decks, not being acceptable in the format. The ‘fun first’ philosophy is great for the enfranchised, but bewildering for newcomers. Translating it into a firm set of rules, while difficult, may be the best long-term solution.
Ultimately, this new Commander power level system will be a huge change for MTG. One of the biggest in years if we go by the number of players affected. Given that Commander is now, in many ways, the lifeblood of the game, Wizards need to be very careful about how they handle it.
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