It’s been a hell of a week for MTG. Last Monday, four huge Commander bans were announced that shook the entire community to its core. Secondary market prices on the cards in question crashed, and outrage dominated many of Magic’s online discussion forums.
It was a dark week for the game, with some of the worst player vitriol we’ve ever seen. This was directed at the Commander Rules Committee, the Commander Advisory Group, and of course Wizards themselves. Today, as a result of all of this, WotC has officially announced a takeover of the Commander format. Wizards will now be running Commander, not the Rules Committee.
A Change In Management
While it may not sound like it to newer players, this is an absolutely monumental change. Since its inception, Commander has been unique in that decisions regarding its balancing have been made by the Commander Rules Committee (RC) and not Wizards. For a while, this made sense, since Commander was primarily a casual format. In recent years, however, Commander has exploded in popularity, which has led to a number of issues.
Those issues came to a head last week, where we saw first-hand the impact major decisions can have on Commander today. After years of inactivity, the decision by the RC to ban the cards that they did ignited a full-on firestorm in the community. In response, WotC made the following announcement earlier today:
“So today, in partnership with members of the existing Rules Committee, we are announcing that the Rules Committee is giving management of the Commander format to the game design team of Wizards of the Coast.”
Wizards of the Coast
Without the RC, Commander will now be managed in the same way as other MTG formats. This means decisions on bans will be made by WotC’s own designers, and not a panel of independent players and creators as before. The announcement does mention that the previous format leaders will still be involved, however.
“While ownership of the format may be changing, members of the Rules Committee and others in the community will continue to be involved, and the vision for a social format will not change […] Working with the community to craft this format is critical to all of us.”
Wizards of the Coast
This is a reassuring sentiment, but it’s hardly a guarantee. Many have disagreed with the decisions of the RC over the years, but the current success of the format is largely down to it as well. To hand over the keys now, when things are going so well, could be the beginning of a downward spiral. This is something that many members of the community are worried about.
Fears For The Future
“We’re moving from a RC whose primary concern is the health of the format (whether you agree with their decisions or not) to an RC whose primary concern is making money. Fun!”
Tomer Abramovici, Budget Commander
The concern from many is that WotC won’t ban cards in Commander in order to preserve their value. Cards like Jeweled Lotus, for example, would remain in the format to sell packs rather than be banned as they should.
This is a valid concern, but I’m not sure how it really stands up to scrutiny. The RC has been famously inactive over the years, refusing to ban many problematic cards for various reasons. Even last week, discussions arose about why Mana Crypt was banned but not Sol Ring or Mana Vault. The RC was hardly proactive when it came to addressing the issues with the format, so it’s not hard to imagine WotC themselves would be more so. They’ve had no problem banning expensive staples in formats like Standard and Modern in the past, after all.
“The people who truly loved the format and its players stepped down because they felt unsafe. As a community we should be embarrassed. If you were a part of any harassment you should be ashamed of yourself. This will be a bigger loss for our community than any card could be.”
MTGNerdGirl
The idea that the WotC Commander takeover is taking place because of last week’s harassment is a bigger concern. Situations like this are awful, but caving to the worst side of the community isn’t a good solution. This seems to be the case based on the announcement article, too. While this could set a precedent, shifting focus away from specific well-known individuals on the RC is likely a good move. When the decisions are made by an anonymous committee, harassment should be less of a problem.
Overall, this change could go either way. We could see a responsibly managed and regularly updated Commander format from Wizards that performs even better than it did during the RC’s reign. Alternatively, the concerns about guiding the format for profit over playability could come to pass. Either way, I think we can expect some big updates soon now that WotC is in charge.
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