Magic: The Gathering publisher names new panel to oversee troubled Commander format
The formation of the CFP formally brings an end to the all-volunteer committee, first formed in 2006. The move also effectively brings the casual, multiplayer Commander format fully under the control of publisher Wizards of the Coast for the first time.
“Ultimately, myself and other designers at Wizards are going to make the final calls [on Commander going forward],” Verhey said in the post, “but I do expect that most of the time majority opinion on the panel will win out.”
CFP members include the following individuals and pseudonyms, whose X social media accounts were also linked in the original announcement:
The Commander format was severely disrupted last month following a series of high-profile card bans initiated by the CRC. An unprecedented period of harassment followed those bans, including threats of violence and death threats, ultimately leading to the resignation of the entire body. For the CFP, Verhey said that Wizards took as its inspiration the Pauper Format Panel, which was spun up in 2022. Verhey is also a member of that panel.
“We’re a bunch of individuals from around the world that work together to monitor the health of Pauper, suggest changes, and discuss things like ban updates,” Verhey said. “I feel like it’s worked out well, and it’s the base that we wanted to model Commander’s community group after.”
Verhey added that previous members of the CRC and the Commander Advisory Group were all invited to join, but that the goal with such a large panel was to expand the core group’s perspective.
“We wanted to add in some new eyes as well,” Verhey said. “I really wanted to bring in players from other places in the world who have different preferred levels of Commander play. That way, the feedback would come from more regions of the world and we could hear the full range of the Commander spectrum, from players who prefer extremely casual decks to “cEDH” (competitive Commander) players.”
Following a break-in period, the Commander panel will provide feedback on the newly proposed “bracket” system, which Wizards pitched immediately after the CRC originally stepped down as a way to mitigate the existing power differential between some cards in the format. You can read more about it on the Wizards website, but fans should understand that it’s still a ways off from being implemented. And, even when it is, Verhey said it shouldn’t have a big impact on casual play.
Following the proposed brackets, Verhey said that Wizards will once again look at the ban list.
“After aligning on a bracket system and running some tests, I expect our focus to turn to our evaluation of the banned card list,” Verhey said. “To set expectations on that timeline, I wouldn’t expect any changes before early next year at the earliest, and you will have advanced notice. As we said previously, it’s still true that you should not expect any new bans in that evaluation.”
