- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Tl;dw shamelessly stolen from Reddit:
- “We all, WOTC and RC, reached this conclusion together.”
- They are taking precautions to ensure the safety of RC members.
- They still want to keep it a community-driven format.
- Gavin plans to establish a committee similar to Pauper Format Panel. RC and CAG members are likely members.
- Aaron addresses the worries about profit-driven actions. “I’m also here for the love of the game(like RC).Yes Hasbro wants things. Yes my bosses wants things. I have a lot of freedom to do what I think is best. Our goal is to make things last forever. Keeping the community happy is our way to make money.”
- They want to wait until the Panel is established to talk about the banlist. Beyond the initial banlist changes they don’t want to make changes too often.
- Quarterly banlist updates similar to RC. It won’t follow B&R of other formats.
- Power brackets: E.g. tier 1 swords, tier 2 thalia, tier 3 drannith magistrate, tier 4 armageddon etc.
- Aaron Forsythe used to play Armageddon 😱
- They aren’t trying to replace Rule 0, they are trying to make it easier.
- At least 1 person from the CEDH community will be part of the panel. WOTC will still focus on casual commander.
- No separate banlists. Brackets will already do that job.
- Aaron: “4th bracket will be cards that you will rarely see in precons.”
- Sol Ring isn’t going anywhere. Sol Ring is “Bracket 0” so to say.
- Points system similar to Canlander is too complex and competitive for casual commander.
- Brawl in Arena already separates decks into 4 categories.
- Jeweled Lotus, Arcane Signet, Dockside etc. were mistakes. Cards that were banned recently are the kinds of cards they wouldn’t want to make today. They want to reduce ubiquitousness going forward.
- They are discussing implementing more digital tools. E.g. you enter your decklist and it tells you your bracket.
- They want to release first Brackets article before MagicCon Las Vegas.
- Committee will be in the range of 10-20 people. There are also 10 commander designers working in WOTC.
- They are not tied to number 4. They can make a 5th bracket for CEDH.
- It is undecided whether the Committee will be anonymous. At least some names will be known.
- They can divide combos into different brackets: Thoracle combos bracket 4, SangBond+EqBlood bracket 3 etc.
- Gavin reads reddit a lot.
I think it’s a shame it had to come to this. I trusted the RC and CAG to make good decisions for the direction of Commander, and there will always be a risk of business execs higher than Gavin and MaRo pushing things to maximize profits, but I also understand why it had to be done. People apparently just can’t be civil online.
This talk was a good look into who the format will be resting with, and it’s encouraging, at least. They look like they’re putting a lot of thought into how they want people to approach Commander, even if I think the entire tier system is wonky. I have some decks that are full of absolute junk and fun cards, but of course they have to run some efficient cards, whether it’s removal or ramp, and if those are tier 4 and the rest of my deck plays like a 2, it would be frustrating to have to label it as a 4. Overall, it should just be a shortcut to indicate the general strength or speed of the deck, so people can all have fun in a game. It shouldn’t replace rule 0, that’s for sure.