In the Commander format, all sets covering Magic the Gathering’s history of cards are legal, which means players have an incredible amount of agency to build their dream deck. The massive popularity of Commander has led to consistent requests and demands to introduce the format in Magic Arena. There are many reasons why it should be in the digital platform, even beyond this player demand.
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Commander Format in the Magic Space
With the Magic franchise continuing to expand, Wizards of the Coast seems to have acknowledged Commander’s popularity. Commander-only products are run in conjunction with each new set release, and there is a rules committee to ensure the format is as balanced as possible. In Commander, due to the larger amount of health that players have and the ease of establishing mana bases with less threats, cards that may not find a home in other formats are an easier consideration. Commander opens MTG up to a variety of new ways to utilize cards from every set, enabling aspects such as political, tribal, group-hug decks, and far more.
With Magic Arena being a digital format, players have a single source for finding and utilizing their cards. While Magic Arena doesn’t have the complete MTG library, there are still a huge amount of cards available that could easily establish a Commander format. On top of this, every month the number of new products added to Magic Arena grows. Wizards of the Coast is able to add to the Magic Arena card pool with ease, buffing out styles like Alchemy, Jumpstart, and Historic through limited-time events. There’s no reason to think that adding more cards or formats would be an issue for Magic Arena.
Wizards of the Coast could also introduce its massive list of Commander-specific products into Magic Arena, such as pre-constructed decks and format-dedicated cards - which would automatically validate a huge number of deck archetypes and strategies. Exploring the digital space, such as with Alchemy cards (Arena’s digital-only format), could expand the Commander format further, enabling opportunities on Magic Arena that would not be possible on paper.
Growing Arena for MTG Fans
Magic Arena is no stranger to Commander-like formats. Brawl, especially Historic Brawl, is similar to Commander and is popular among the digital community. Brawl has become a crucial format for Magic Arena because players do not need to deal as much with the game’s economy. MTG and its many formats revolve around players having sets of cards, often at high rarity, in order to make legible decks. This can turn players off because of the expense of creating a playable Magic Arena deck in competitive formats, such as Standard and Historic.
In the Commander and Brawl formats, this is much less of a problem. The format is more accessible to new players, whether they are spending money or not. Introducing the Commander format, along with its supplementary products, would only benefit both new and existing players, and ensure the continuing expansion of Magic Arena.
While there are concerns over the technical limitations of Magic Arena to implement formats beyond 2v2, there’s no reason to consider it an impossible undertaking. MTGO successfully implemented Commander almost 30 years old. Introducing a Commander format to Magic Arena would be a win both for players and for Wizards of the Coast, so it may simply be a matter of time.
Magic Arena is available now for Mobile and PC.
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