Over the last week, one major topic of discussion in the MTG community has been the new bracket system for Commander. As many of you may know, Wizards of the Coast will now be in charge of the Commander format. One thing that was made clear is their intentions to group Commander cards into separate tiers based on power level. Hypothetically, this should help make things easier for players to compare the power levels of their decks against each other.
An issue that many players have brought up is that there’s bound to be disagreement about which cards belong in which brackets. MTG designer Gavin Verhey released a small, sample bracket earlier last week that caused tension among players by itself. Some questioned why Armageddon was in tier 4 (most powerful tier) alongside Vampiric Tutor. Others pointed out that having Drannith Magistrate in tier 3 below these cards didn’t make much sense.
Knowing this was only for a small selection of cards, there’s bound to be a lot of controversy with bracket decisions as the process progresses. Well, in advance of this, one player decided to create a survey letting the players vote on where they felt the top 100 Commander cards and top 50 Commanders (according to EDHRec) should land. After 225,000 votes, the results are now in, and there are definitely some areas of contention showcased by the data.
Controversy
The most interesting talking point when looking at the survey is almost certainly the fact that some cards received votes all over the place. At the top of that list, we have Sol Ring. There was no general consensus around Sol Ring whatsoever. Out of the 1,514 respondents, 750 voted for Sol Ring to be in tier 1. Conversely, 546 people felt Sol Ring deserved to be in tier 4. This really showcases the difference in opinion that players can have.
Granted, Sol Ring is a weird case because, while obviously very powerful, it has been printed in so many Precons. On top of that, though, if you’re playing casually, it doesn’t have the same game-warping potential as if you’re playing competitively. With many of the cards whose votes were highly contested, this point holds true.
Dark Ritual is in a bit of a similar boat. 579 respondents put Dark Ritual into tier 2, while 504 put it into tier 3. Yet, 259 players put Dark Ritual in tier 1, which dragged its average score down. For casual players, Dark Ritual often serves as a brief boost of mana to help cast a cool, big spell. In competitive environments, Dark Ritual provides the mana boost needed to win the same turn, potentially in a Storm deck. This is a very different feel and makes it tough to rank cards like this.
Similarly, cards like Eerie Ultimatum and Mirari’s Wake that are a bit expensive mana-wise but offer a big advantage received wide vote distributions. 621 respondents put Eerie Ultimatum into tier 1. However, another 280 put it into tier 3, likely for its ability to win casual games essentially the turn its cast.
As for the Commanders, many of them have votes spread across all four brackets. Cards like Esika, God of the Tree garnered at least 200 votes in all four tiers. The power level of these types of Commanders heavily depends on how you choose to build around them. As such, it can be very tough to grade cards like this accordingly.
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Patterns in Data
With all that being said, there were some notable patterns in the data that revealed how players generally felt about different types of cards. In the top 100 Commander cards, there are a lot of different styles of cards present. Ramp, tutors, card advantage engines, board wipes, and more were available for players to assess. Based on these different groupings and the data from the survey, some important conclusions can be drawn.
First and foremost, almost every tutor earned an average vote between tiers 3 and 4. Considering the incredible efficiency and flexibility of cards like Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor, this isn’t too surprising. However, it is worth noting that even the tutors that are significantly more restrictive in what they can find still earned high-tier votes. For instance, Worldly Tutor had an average vote of 3.15. This is definitely lower than Vampiric Tutor’s 3.63, but it’s not as big of a gap as expected, given that Worldly Tutor only finds creatures.
Digging deeper, it seems like part of the reason that these tutors all had such high scores is that they are all incredibly efficient. They also ask very little of you to maximize. These factors seem to have played a big part. Vampiric Tutor even got more votes for tier 4 than Demonic Tutor, which speaks volumes about how much efficiency matters.
This trend continues with “free” spells like Fierce Guardianship and Deflecting Swat, which were given high grades. The Commander that earned the highest grade, Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow, follows suit as well.
On the flip side, cards that act as the “bread and butter” of Commander decks, including mana rocks, basic one-for-one removal, and ramp, mostly fell between tiers 1 and 2. Arcane Signet may be homogenous, but it makes sense for the card to land in a low tier. After all, it doesn’t have the potential to take over or completely shift a game like tutors can.
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Player Reaction
Even though some cards were highly debatable, it seems most players in the comments of the Reddit thread agreed with most of the tier results. This is a bit surprising, but it helped a lot that so much data was collected. Gavin Verhey himself even appreciated the work that was put in.
Of course, there were plenty of comments signaling disagreements with the survey results here and there. Rhystic Study being ranked above Mystic Remora sparked some complaints, as did Dark Ritual being given such a low average grade. Once again, though, the difference in playstyle of those voting certainly plays a role. As Reddit user Rusty_DastaSci_Guy points out, Rhystic Study bothers everyone equally, which helps it earn a high score.
The Commander bracket system is undoubtedly a long work in progress. This initial gathering of data is nice to see at a baseline and can give players a bit of a clue how the community feels about certain cards. As far as how the results of the survey end up aligning with the brackets Wizards of the Coast creates, we’ll just have to wait and see.
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