Duel Commander isn’t an official MTG format, but it’s certainly picking up speed. Not only does this format have a massive tournament scene, but it’s even officially supported on Magic Online. This means there are full leagues and challenges to support a healthy competitive community.
While growing in popularity, Duel Commander still isn’t the most widely known format in existence. Many Commander players, for example, may not even know this competitively-minded variant exists. That may be about to change soon, however, as a massive event has just been confirmed for this growing format.
Duel Commander and Relic Con
Relic Fest 2024, held by Relic Con, is coming up quickly. The main event for this Con occurs on Saturday, November 2nd, and shockingly features the Duel Commander format. 850+ players will be duking it out for a Black Lotus, one of the most expensive and iconic cards in all of Magic: The Gathering. The Black Lotus in question is a lightly played copy from Unlimited.
Duel Commander is similar to Commander, but there are a few differences that tailor the format better for competitive play. Firstly, there is a separate banlist for the format that is much more extensive than Commander’s banlist. Individual Commanders are banned in this format, which the Commander ban list no longer entails. Even super-staples like Sol Ring are banned in Duel Commander for being too oppressive.
While this is the biggest difference between Duel Commander and Commander, there are some additional rules changes. The biggest of these is that, as the name suggests, Duel Commander is a two-player format. No need to worry about political shenanigans while Playing Duel Commander, as it’s all about outplaying your opponent.
This means that a lot of cards that are absolutely terrible in Commander, like Thoughtseize, are much more powerful than Duel Commander since the card will affect everyone at the table.
Duel Commander players also play with a lower life total. Instead of having a massive 40 life available to you, Duel Commander plays with the commonly seen 20 life in other two-player competitive formats. This allows aggressive strategies utilizing primarily creatures to be a lot more viable.
Finally, mulligans work the same as they do in competitive formats. There are no free mulligans in Duel Commander. If you get a bad hand, you’ll have to mulligan down to six.
Everything else between Duel Commander and Commander pretty much checks out. The format utilizes 99-card singleton decks with a Commander and all the cards in your 99 need to fit within your Commander’s color identity.
Popular Duel Commanders
If you’re interested in competing in this Duel Commander event for yourself, there may still be an opportunity to sign up. Relic Con is trying to push the player number to 900 for the event. That said, do keep in mind that this event is being held in Toulouse, France at the beginning of November. If you’re a North American like me, making plans for this event at this time may be a bit difficult.
Even if this particular event is a bit hard to reach, if you’re interested in giving Duel Commander a try, here are some of the more popular Commanders in the format:
- Ertai Resurrected
- Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd
- Aragorn, King of Gondor
- Slimefoot and Squee
- Satya, Aetherflux Genius
The banlist for the Duel Commander format is also upkept pretty regularly. Recently, a Modern Horizons 3 flipwalker was banned from the format. Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student was warping the Commander format in a similar way to Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer in its early Modern days. If you don’t have turn one removal for it, you get extremely far behind. This warped deckbuilding for the entire format, which isn’t something that was deemed healthy for Duel Commander.
Considering that Duel Commander isn’t an official MTG format, it certainly has a massive following. 850+ players for an event is no joke, and the prizing for such an event is even more shocking. If you want to give competitive Commander a try, but the politics involved in cEDH games are not your speed, consider trying Duel Commander. The format is available on Magic Online, so it is incredibly accessible.
The Latest Duel Commander Ban: MTG Commander Variant Bans Modern Horizons 3 Flip Walker
