Magic: The Gathering Designer Explains The Dangers Of Releasing Multiple Commander Decks At Once

Commander is by far Magic: The Gathering‘s most popular format these days. Instead of preconstructed decks for standard, fans wait to see which new Commander decks will get revealed. But Wizards of the Coast has occasionally only launched one new precon Commander deck per set, including with the current Reality Fracture expansion. Magic: The Gathering game designer Gavin Verhey recently explained why that is. Reality Fracture is all about the planeswalker Jace having a psychotic break due to past traumas and attempting to reconstruct a new reality as a result. That backstory is on full display in the set’s only precon Commander deck, Multiverse Reforged, which features the four-color Jace, Multiverse Architect and a ton of powerful and adaptable spells. “Many internally believe this precon is among the most powerful we’ve ever released,” Verhey told IGN. That’s also the reason why there aren’t other Commander precons in Reality Fracture. “We tend to run into problems when we release two Commander decks, and one is vastly more exciting than the other,” Verhey explained. “For example, stores end up with one on shelves while the other evaporates immediately. So we did talk about this, but it was harder to imagine [a deck] much cooler than the Jace Echoverse deck.” The Marvel set Wizards released at the start of the summer included a whopping four different Commander precons, each headlined by a different set of heroes or villains. Of those, the Fantastic Four deck was arguably the weakest out of the box and by far the least popular in online discussions. It probably made sense in terms of the flavor of the set to try to feature as many Marvel icons as possible, but it also led to much less desirable products for people serious about Commander. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in March avoided that by featuring only one precon: Turtle Power. It featured all five colors, lots of team-up mechanics, and essentially allowed Wizards to cram all of its best ideas into a single box, rather than divide them up. Many fans were surprised and disappointed at the time that Wizards was forgoing additional precons in that set, but in hindsight it feels like it was the right move. However, it doesn’t sound like Wizards agrees with me. On Tumblr, head designer Mark Rosewater recently confirmed that every set in 2027 will arrive with four Commander precons. That means 24 preconstructed commander decks total next year. “Jesus Christ,” read the first response. Another was more diplomatic. “I liked the paradigm of just letting sets have what makes sense, whether that’s 1 2 4 or 5, but I also enjoy getting more precons and new cards so I’m happy about this,” they wrote. Here’s to all the precons that are still sitting on store shelves a year from now.