Since 1993 when Magic the Gathering first opened our hearts to the world of wonder and mystery of the planes they explore, Magic has evolved and changed to adapt to its growing player base and explored the design space it lives in. The backbone of Magic is it’s color identities, giving each color in the universe it creates a purpose in the worlds they inhabit.
White is the color of peace and order
Blue is the color of opportunity and knowledge
Black is the color of death and betrayal
Red is the color of freedom and emotion
Green is the color of nature and interdependence
Each color represents a basic human principle which draws us to the respective colors: a feeling of belonging, and understanding. I, as a person, am a fiery and passionate person, but I also believe in the understanding of ourselves as imperfect and evil we can strive towards excellence. And possibly these principles are what draw me to two specific colors in Magic, black and red. Magic is more than just a game, it is the embodiment of our own values and using your wit, cunning, and strength to best your opponent. And commander, acts as the perfect outlet to express the color identities of Magic.
Commander is a format that was created by the Magic the Gathering community, and not sanctioned by MTG as an official competitive format. Originally, Magic the gathering had no legendary permanents but that all changed with the introduction of Magic’s seventh set: Legends. With the introduction of Legends came legendary creatures in the form of the Elder Dragons like Nicol Bolas and Chromium and rules that only one of each legend could be on the players field at a time. Quickly after the release of Legends, came the format of Elder Dragon Highlander, where players would play decks with the Elder Dragons at the helm of their armies. Judges and players would often play games of EDH in between matches at PTQ and Grand Prix events, and thus, the format was born. Since the set of Legends, many more Legendary creatures have been printed, in fact 955 legendary creatures exist as of 2020 and allow for some of the wackiest and creative decks available.
And this is what leads me into Commander, and why it is the best format in Magic the Gathering. Commander (or also known as EDH) is a format where you play with all the cards printed in Magic’s history (minus a short list of cards too powerful to see play) in a deck with 99 cards. You must only play with one copy of each card in your deck (with the exception of basic land cards) and one Legendary creature must act as your commander. The commander in your deck acts as the embodiment of the leader in your army. It gives way for many different types of decks due to the sheer size of design space created over 20 years by Magic the Gathering. All the way from mages like Kess who use the knowledge of blue mixed with the reanimation of black to use her spells over again to gain value over opponents, to orc warriors like Zurgo Helmsmasher who use powerful weapons to overrun their opponents with an unstoppable force!
Commander as a format allows the player to essentially BECOME the leader of their army and immerses them with all the cards available in Magic to execute a unique strategy often akin to something their commander might do. Commander is an extension of the Magic philosophy, that the player is in fact the leader of an army and the colors that they play in allow for different manners of executing a win.
With our previous examples of Kess and Zurgo, although their gameplans are extremely different and how they plan to win is very different, they still share a color identity of red. With wedge decks (3 color decks) oftentimes they will lean on a specific pairing and dip into a third color to complement the existing colors. With Kess, she leans more into blue-black while using red in its other color pairings (red-black, red-blue) to compliment a spell slinging mage’s arsenal. While Zurgo might focus more on the red-white identity for aggressive spells and creatures to quickly close out a game while using black to fill out the weaknesses of the other two colors: mainly drawing cards. With wedge decks and multi-color decks, color pairings become more a part of the identity of a commander but having enough versatility to function in different ways.
This does differ from other forms of magic like standard and modern because oftentimes, the color identities do not offer much differentiation in deck building.
Let's look at Red, the color of freedom and emotion. Mono red decks often are aggressive and enemies feel the pressure from turn one, often getting burned out by high damage spells and well stated early game threats. Despite what the gamestate is, it seems like mono red aggro is always prevalent in standard and modern as it’s been in the top 8 for PTQ and Grand Prix events for decades. The problem is that although the cards may change, the game plan doesn’t change: Play threats early, close out the game by approx turn 5-6.
Of course, the same can be said for any color but the difference in commander is the variety it brings in the design space it occupies. Let’s look at mono red now in commander in 3 examples of possible commanders:
Each red commander offers an exploration of a design space created for red.
Ilahrg is a boar god, prophesied by the Gruul clans to bring about the eradication of Ravnica. His hooves will trample the bricks of the towering skylines of Ravnica and bring about the end of all things. His triggered ability of summoning creatures to attack with him is a very red theme. He uses the monstrous creatures available to red like the many dragons and orcs/giants available in their arsenal to crumble an opponent's defences.
Daretti is a goblin mage of the Fiora plane who’s considered a master artificer. Where others see trash, Daretti sees gold, and an opportunity to exploit others' ignorance. He has the incredible ability to transform the likes of a useless Ornithopter into a terrifying Wurmcoil Engine with the snap of his fingers. He is one with artifacts, and they bend to his will to do his bidding and destroy his opponents.
Neheb is an initiate who worships the Ammonket god Hazoret who is the embodiment of inspiration before being corrupted by the planeswalker Nicol Bolas. Neheb died in the trials of the five gods, and was eternalized by Nicol Bolas to do his bidding. His spear is emblazoned with fire, and he uses the fiery powers obtained through his trials to channel mana by inflicting pain on his enemies. The pain he inflicts only furthers his own power, and enables him to encompass his enemies in a world of fire.
Each of these commanders for red offer vastly different game designs and allow for gameplay that is non comparable to each other. A Daretti deck will seldom win through a massive fireball like a Neheb deck would, and a Neheb spell slinger deck wouldn’t win through smashing an enemy with a Blightsteel Colossus like Ilharg would.
With the introduction to more commander products than ever before in the coming year, it’s easy to see that Wizard’s of the Coast understand how important commander is to the evolution of Magic and to further explore the design space that’s given with each color identity and pairing. Maybe one day, we can watch our favorite commanders go face to face in 4 player competitive play… but until that day, we’ll keep dreaming up new ways to break the rules of magic and bend the color identities to create unique and inventive ways to play Magic the Gathering.
White is the color of peace and order
Blue is the color of opportunity and knowledge
Black is the color of death and betrayal
Red is the color of freedom and emotion
Green is the color of nature and interdependence
Each color represents a basic human principle which draws us to the respective colors: a feeling of belonging, and understanding. I, as a person, am a fiery and passionate person, but I also believe in the understanding of ourselves as imperfect and evil we can strive towards excellence. And possibly these principles are what draw me to two specific colors in Magic, black and red. Magic is more than just a game, it is the embodiment of our own values and using your wit, cunning, and strength to best your opponent. And commander, acts as the perfect outlet to express the color identities of Magic.
Commander is a format that was created by the Magic the Gathering community, and not sanctioned by MTG as an official competitive format. Originally, Magic the gathering had no legendary permanents but that all changed with the introduction of Magic’s seventh set: Legends. With the introduction of Legends came legendary creatures in the form of the Elder Dragons like Nicol Bolas and Chromium and rules that only one of each legend could be on the players field at a time. Quickly after the release of Legends, came the format of Elder Dragon Highlander, where players would play decks with the Elder Dragons at the helm of their armies. Judges and players would often play games of EDH in between matches at PTQ and Grand Prix events, and thus, the format was born. Since the set of Legends, many more Legendary creatures have been printed, in fact 955 legendary creatures exist as of 2020 and allow for some of the wackiest and creative decks available.
And this is what leads me into Commander, and why it is the best format in Magic the Gathering. Commander (or also known as EDH) is a format where you play with all the cards printed in Magic’s history (minus a short list of cards too powerful to see play) in a deck with 99 cards. You must only play with one copy of each card in your deck (with the exception of basic land cards) and one Legendary creature must act as your commander. The commander in your deck acts as the embodiment of the leader in your army. It gives way for many different types of decks due to the sheer size of design space created over 20 years by Magic the Gathering. All the way from mages like Kess who use the knowledge of blue mixed with the reanimation of black to use her spells over again to gain value over opponents, to orc warriors like Zurgo Helmsmasher who use powerful weapons to overrun their opponents with an unstoppable force!
Commander as a format allows the player to essentially BECOME the leader of their army and immerses them with all the cards available in Magic to execute a unique strategy often akin to something their commander might do. Commander is an extension of the Magic philosophy, that the player is in fact the leader of an army and the colors that they play in allow for different manners of executing a win.
With our previous examples of Kess and Zurgo, although their gameplans are extremely different and how they plan to win is very different, they still share a color identity of red. With wedge decks (3 color decks) oftentimes they will lean on a specific pairing and dip into a third color to complement the existing colors. With Kess, she leans more into blue-black while using red in its other color pairings (red-black, red-blue) to compliment a spell slinging mage’s arsenal. While Zurgo might focus more on the red-white identity for aggressive spells and creatures to quickly close out a game while using black to fill out the weaknesses of the other two colors: mainly drawing cards. With wedge decks and multi-color decks, color pairings become more a part of the identity of a commander but having enough versatility to function in different ways.
This does differ from other forms of magic like standard and modern because oftentimes, the color identities do not offer much differentiation in deck building.
Let's look at Red, the color of freedom and emotion. Mono red decks often are aggressive and enemies feel the pressure from turn one, often getting burned out by high damage spells and well stated early game threats. Despite what the gamestate is, it seems like mono red aggro is always prevalent in standard and modern as it’s been in the top 8 for PTQ and Grand Prix events for decades. The problem is that although the cards may change, the game plan doesn’t change: Play threats early, close out the game by approx turn 5-6.
Of course, the same can be said for any color but the difference in commander is the variety it brings in the design space it occupies. Let’s look at mono red now in commander in 3 examples of possible commanders:
1 Daretti, Scrap Savant
1 Neheb, the Eternal
Each red commander offers an exploration of a design space created for red.
Ilahrg is a boar god, prophesied by the Gruul clans to bring about the eradication of Ravnica. His hooves will trample the bricks of the towering skylines of Ravnica and bring about the end of all things. His triggered ability of summoning creatures to attack with him is a very red theme. He uses the monstrous creatures available to red like the many dragons and orcs/giants available in their arsenal to crumble an opponent's defences.
Daretti is a goblin mage of the Fiora plane who’s considered a master artificer. Where others see trash, Daretti sees gold, and an opportunity to exploit others' ignorance. He has the incredible ability to transform the likes of a useless Ornithopter into a terrifying Wurmcoil Engine with the snap of his fingers. He is one with artifacts, and they bend to his will to do his bidding and destroy his opponents.
Neheb is an initiate who worships the Ammonket god Hazoret who is the embodiment of inspiration before being corrupted by the planeswalker Nicol Bolas. Neheb died in the trials of the five gods, and was eternalized by Nicol Bolas to do his bidding. His spear is emblazoned with fire, and he uses the fiery powers obtained through his trials to channel mana by inflicting pain on his enemies. The pain he inflicts only furthers his own power, and enables him to encompass his enemies in a world of fire.
Each of these commanders for red offer vastly different game designs and allow for gameplay that is non comparable to each other. A Daretti deck will seldom win through a massive fireball like a Neheb deck would, and a Neheb spell slinger deck wouldn’t win through smashing an enemy with a Blightsteel Colossus like Ilharg would.
With the introduction to more commander products than ever before in the coming year, it’s easy to see that Wizard’s of the Coast understand how important commander is to the evolution of Magic and to further explore the design space that’s given with each color identity and pairing. Maybe one day, we can watch our favorite commanders go face to face in 4 player competitive play… but until that day, we’ll keep dreaming up new ways to break the rules of magic and bend the color identities to create unique and inventive ways to play Magic the Gathering.