Commander is a series of supplemental Magic: the Gathering card game products. Its mechanics are derived from a fan-created format known as "Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH)".
The Commander format has each player provide a 100-card deck, using cards from any printed sets excluding those that are banned, with the requirement that each card outside basic lands must be unique, in contrast to normal Magic decks that allow up to four copies of a card from the game's current base and expansion sets. The Commander format serves as a casual alternative to normal competitive play.
The official Commander format was initially "the only sanctioned format maintained by an outside entity" other than Wizards of the Coast. While the Commander format had been overseen by a volunteer group of players since its inception, the group voluntarily turned over management of the format to Wizards of the Coast in September 2024 following player controversy over certain card bans.
History Elder Dragon Highlander The original fan-created format, Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH), was developed by Adam Staley in the late 1990s and became a staple of his local play groups in Alaska. Staley's original name was "a tribute to the line 'there can be only one' spoken repeatedly in the 1986 film Highlander", evoking the idea of a battle royale and that there could only be one of a given type of card in a player's deck. The first part of the name referenced the Elder Dragons in the Magic storyline. However, Polygon highlighted that there is some contention on the creative origins of the format as The Duelist also published a multiplayer format in July 1996 called "Elder Legend Dragon Wars" which was shared with the magazine by reader Jesus M. Lopez who claimed he had designed this format. When asked by Polygon, Staley said "I do not remember reading that article. Some things are similar to my version and some are very different".
Sheldon Menery, who was first introduced to EDH in 2002, while stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base, then developed the format further culminating in his 2004 article, outlining the format on the Magic fan site Star City Games which "spread the word about it beyond his circle of judges for the first time". This format differed in several ways such as an expanded deck size and a larger health total. Scott Larabee, the Wizards of the Coast's Pro Tour manager, played the format for the first time in 2005 with one of Menery's decks at a tournament. In the following year, Menery along with other Pro Tour judges, Gavin Duggan and Duncan McGregor, created a rules committee with an official website.
Commander Larabee went on to advocate for the format within Wizards of the Coast which led to the commercial launch of the format in 2011. The EDH name was changed due to intellectual property concerns. , Wizards of the Coast has released a product line containing preconstructed Commander decks. However, the format was initially maintained by the Commander Rules Committee (CRC) which was run independently of Wizards of the Coast. In 2020, Wizards of the Coast released metrics from stores in its Wizards Play Network (WPN) on the total number of participants in Magic events (referred to as Tickets). Per the industry trade ICv2:
In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wizards of the Coast partnered on a webcam version of Magic: The Gathering playable online called SpellTable, which allows remote play of the Commander format. In 2021, Dot eSports highlighted that "Commander has become one of the biggest formats in Magic over the past five years, even leading to Wizards of the Coast dubbing 2020 as 'The Year of Commander.' The format is a boon for novice and experienced deckbuilders to craft thematic decks centered around Magics over 1,200 Legendary creatures".
On September 23rd, 2024, the CRC announced that four cards were being added to the banlist for the Commander format which sparked immediate backlash from the community. James Whitbrook of Gizmodo characterized the community response as "heated" due to the aftermarket value of the banned cards and their "popularity in competitive play". Josh Lee Kwai, a member of the Commander Advisory Group (CAG) which supported the CRC, resigned following the banlist announcement. However, "things took a turn for the worse" when the reaction started to target members of the CRC individually. On September 30, 2024, the CRC officially gave "management of the Commander format to the game design team of Wizards of the Coast". Wizards of the Coast stated that "the task of managing Commander has far outgrown the scope and safety of being attached to any five people". The CRC explained that the level of vitriol in the ban backlash, which included death threats, made it "impossible" for the CRC "to continue operating as an independent entity". Chase Carter of Rascal commented that this move is a "great and necessary solution" due to the level of harassment the CRC received, however, he was concerned about the long term health of the format with Wizards of the Coast presiding "as Commander's creator and arbitrator" which many felt "threatens the spirit of the format. If the company's weird bracket system suggestion is any indication of their stewardship, these first months could prove especially rough". Ash Parrish of The Verge similarly noted concerns that since Wizards of the Coast now controls the banlist, "there's nothing preventing it from continuing to print powerful, format-degrading cards in service of increased sales".
Commander Format Panel On October 22, 2024, Wizards of the Coast announced the Commander Format Panel (CFP) as a replacement for the CRC. The CFP is a rotating group of 17 notable Magic players and content creators. Several members of the CFP were either part of the CRC or the CAG. The goal in creating this panel was to "hear the full range of the Commander spectrum, from players who prefer extremely casual decks to 'cEDH' (competitive Commander) players." Principal game designer Gavin Verhey stated that while the Wizards of the Coast designers will make the ultimate "final calls" on the format, he expects "that most of the time majority opinion on the panel will win out".
Oathbreaker In March 2023, Wizards of the Coast officially launched the Oathbreaker format, which originated as a fan-created variation of Commander. It was created "around 2017" by the Weirdcards Charitable Club, a Minnesota-based gaming group, before becoming an officially supported format. The Oathbreaker format features an instant or sorcery "Signature Spell", and decks have only 60 cards.
Gameplay
Commander is a format where players construct 100-card decks, with each card (except basic lands) appearing no more than once. The format is primarily played with four players, each with their own deck. Players also choose a legendary creature or Planeswalker to be their "Commander" or "General" (a Planeswalker must be designated as allowed to be used as a Commander), which begins the game in the "Command Zone", from where it can cast directly to the battlefield. Each player's deck is based and built around their Commander's colors. If a commander leaves the battlefield, it may return to the Command Zone and can be cast again for a higher mana cost.
In addition to the same losing conditions that exist in a normal game of Magic, each player starts the game with 40 life points instead of 20, and a player may lose if they are dealt 21 or more total points of combat damage from a single Commander throughout the game., The format "supports two to six players, sometimes more".
Commander also has its own "banned list" of cards, separate from any other format which was curated by the Commander Rules Committee. This committee also maintained the rules for the format. A list of the recommended banned cards in the format can also be found on the Wizards of the Coast official website.
Variants Competitive EDH, also known as cEDH, is a distinct form of EDH, with the same rules as EDH. Competitive EDH has the same rules and banlist as Commander but it differs in that it has no restrictions on its own strategies, forgoing the typical social contracts in favor of pursuing the most optimal strategies to win. Duel Commander, also known as French Commander, got its origins from Magic judge Kevin Desprez, who brought the initial idea of EDH to France from the USA, before it spread across Europe and later globally. The game is played by two combatants, each starting with 20 life points, obeys the same rules as a regular Magic game, and has one commander (or commanders with Partner ability) plus 99 (or 98 with Partners) cards in the starting library. The mulligan system is the same as for sanctioned formats, and the deck construction rules follow the same color identity rule as the multiplayer version does. It also has its own ban list and is meant to be more competitive than traditional Commander. Pauper Commander is a variant in which each card in the deck must be Pauper legal (had to be printed or released online at one point with a Common rarity) and the Commander must be any creature (legendary or not) that was printed or released online at least one time at Uncommon rarity. On this variation, commander damage is 16 to 18 and starting life is 30 points. Oathbreaker is an official variant which launched in 2023. This format is free-for-all multiplayer with three to five players who each start with 20 life; the winner is the last standing player. Each player builds a 58-card singleton deck along with selecting an "Oathbreaker (a planeswalker card) and a Signature Spell (an instant or sorcery) that matches the color identity of the Oathbreaker" to go with the deck. "The Oathbreaker and the Signature Spell start in the command zone at the beginning of each game, and can be cast during the game at their normal costs, plus an additional two mana for each time they have been cast. Both of these cards return to the command zone if they would go to the graveyard". Commander Box League is an official variant launched by Wizards of the Coast in 2025 for WPN stores. Each player purchases a Play Booster box and their deck construction is limited to the cards within the box. Commander Two-Headed Giant is an official variant launched by Wizards of the Coast in 2025. This two-on-two format is similar to the non-Commander version of Two-Headed Giant – "players pair up in teams of two, share life totals, spells, and strategy in an effort to defeat the other team".
Online variants Magic Online 1v1 Commander is Wizards of the Coast's variant of Commander for Magic: The Gathering Online. In 2023, Wizards of the Coast added Freeform Commander to the platform; this variant removed many deckbuilding restrictions.
In 2018, Wizards of the Coast launched Brawl as a Commander variant for its online platforms. The format is commonly played as a sanctioned event on Magic: The Gathering Online and on Magic: The Gathering Arena. It was a highly requested addition to Arena but the "variant never took off on paper". The physical format was not well-received by the players due to a "shortage of preconstructed decks" and the resale price of individual cards. Brawl utilizes all cards on Arena outside of its own banlist. It has a deck size of 100 cards, and allows for the commander to be any legendary creature or any planeswalker. Brawl was originally "Historic Brawl", while Standard Brawl held the Brawl moniker. Standard Brawl utilizes all cards that are currently legal in Standard and has a rotation schedule similar to that of Standard. While similar to traditional Commander, Standard Brawl deck size is limited to 60 cards and each player starts with 30 life.