Magic format guide8 min readUpdated: June 2026

Commander: Magic’s Social Singleton Format

Commander (EDH) is 100-card singleton multiplayer built around a legendary commander — the social format where deck identity and table politics matter as much as winning. This hub covers the essentials and links into deep dives on the rules, the bracket system, and the format’s remarkable history.

The rules in one screen Understand the brackets

Deck size: 100 exactly
Copies: Singleton
Life: 40
Players: Usually 4
Commander damage: 21

Seat 1

LibraryCommand zone

Seat 4

LibraryCommand zone

Shared battlefield

Free-for-all

Seat 2

LibraryCommand zone

Seat 3

LibraryCommand zone

40 life each21 commander damage kills100-card singleton decks

In this guide

01What Commander actually is 02The rules in one screen 03The five brackets, in one screen 04A format the players built 05FAQ 06Sources & credits

The idea

What Commander actually is

A multiplayer singleton format where every deck is built around one legendary creature — and where the game at the table is as much social as it is strategic.

You pick a legendary creature as your commander, build a deck of exactly 100 cards (commander included) with no duplicates besides basic lands, and sit down with — usually — three opponents. Everyone starts at 40 life, your commander starts in the command zone, and the last player standing wins.

Because games are multiplayer and decks are singleton, Commander rewards different muscles than one-on-one constructed: resilient value engines over razor-thin efficiency, threat assessment over tempo, and table politics over raw speed. Your deck is a statement of identity as much as a strategy — most players are known at their table by their commanders.

Format	Deck size	Card pool	Rotation	Players	Governance
Standard	60 min	Recent premier sets	Every fall	2	WotC
Limited	40 min	Packs opened on the spot	Per set	2–8	WotC
Pauper	60 min	Eternal, commons only	None	2	WotC + Format Panel
CommanderYou are here	100 exactly	Eternal, singleton	None	Usually 4	WotC + Format Panel
Pack Wars	15–30	One booster	None	2+	House rules

Where Commander sits next to the other major formats.

Rules snapshot

The rules in one screen

The five mechanics that define the format. The full reference lives in the Rules deep dive.

The core mechanics

Command zone — your commander starts the game here, castable as if it were in your hand, visible to everyone.
Commander tax — each time you recast your commander from the command zone, it costs {2} more per previous cast.
Color identity — your deck may only contain cards whose mana symbols (anywhere on the card, including reminder text) fall within your commander’s colors.
Commander damage — 21 combat damage from a single commander eliminates a player, regardless of life total.
Singleton, 40 life, free-for-all multiplayer — one copy of everything except basics, double the usual life, and usually a four-player pod.

The classic gotcha

Color identity counts every colored mana symbol printed anywhere on a card — cost, color indicator, and rules text, even inside reminder text. The Rules deep dive covers the edge cases.

Since September 30, 2024 the format is managed by Wizards of the Coast’s game design team together with the Commander Format Panel — a change with a dramatic backstory covered on the History page.

The current banned list

Commander’s banned list changed substantially across 2024–25, including unbannings in April 2025. Always check the official banned and restricted page on magic.wizards.com for the list as it stands today.

Power levels

The five brackets, in one screen

Since February 2025, Commander uses a five-bracket system so tables can agree on power level before the game starts.

Brackets: 5; Exhibition → cEDH
Introduced: Feb 2025; By WotC + the Commander Format Panel, as a beta
Gatekeeper: Game Changers; A curated list of game-warping cards

Bracket 1 (Exhibition) is themed decks played for the table’s entertainment; Bracket 2 (Core) is the precon baseline; Bracket 3 (Upgraded) allows a taste of the Game Changers list; Brackets 4 (Optimized) and 5 (cEDH) take the gloves off. The Brackets deep dive covers the system, the Game Changers list, and how to place your own decks.

The story

A format the players built

Commander is the only flagship format that grew up entirely outside Wizards of the Coast — from an Alaska kitchen table to the most-played way to play Magic.

Invented by players in 1990s Alaska, spread through the judge community by Sheldon Menery, officially supported with precons since 2011, and governed by an independent Rules Committee for decades — Commander’s history reads like nothing else in Magic. The History deep dive tells the whole story, including the dramatic September 2024 handover to WotC.

FAQ

Common questions

How many players do you need for Commander?

The format is balanced around four-player free-for-all pods, but it works with three, five, or even one-on-one (many groups use a separate 1v1 house ruleset). Four is the default everywhere from kitchen tables to SpellTable.

Can any legendary creature be my commander?

Almost — any legendary creature works, plus a small set of cards that explicitly say they can be your commander (some planeswalkers and backgrounds). Your deck is then restricted to your commander’s color identity.

What is the difference between EDH and Commander?

Nothing — they are the same format. It began life as Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH); Wizards of the Coast rebranded it Commander when the first official precons released in 2011. Players still use both names interchangeably.

What bracket are the preconstructed decks?

Bracket 2 (Core) is explicitly anchored to the modern precon power level. If you buy a precon and play it unmodified, you are playing Bracket 2.

Sources & credits

The creators who documented these formats

Pack Wars is community-built. These are the writers, wikis, and Wizards of the Coast references that originated and documented the rules summarized here.