Well, this is all very exciting!

The new Bracket system of ranking Commander decks is... well, it's very new. It's rather untested (it's even currently called "Beta"). In his announcement article, Gavin Verhey made it clear the team doing this wants our feedback.

It should come to a surprise to no one that the team of Commander writers here at CoolStuffInc have some pretty serious opinions about this, and we've been having a vibrant and fun conversation about the ramifications of the system, but also about the Game Changer list. I'd like to spend a little time today talking about my impressions of the Game Changers list, how I think it is intended to be used, and what changes I think should be made to it.

What The Game Changers List Is

From my understanding of Gavin's announcement article, the Game Changers list is a list of specific cards which radically alter the way the game is being played. If this card gets played, everyone is forced to respond to it. Take, for example, The One Ring. Someone plays it and they are free to do whatever they want for the next turn, and after that they're going to bury the table in card advantage if The One Ring isn't destroyed. That radically alters the way the game is being played. It's also dreadfully difficult to remove (requiring Exiling), so... even worse.

"But I play The One Ring in my Frodo Baggins/Jewelry-themed/cards with swirly art deck," I hear you saying, "and it's there for flavor! It shouldn't mean my deck is Bracket 4, because it'll never compete at that level!"

I hear you. It's important to remember the Commander Format Panel (CFP) is thinking far beyond any one person's experience. You may use The One Ring in a particular way that isn't game-changing - but most people do. Most of the time, that card is there because it's incredibly powerful and creates a swing toward the player who plays it, making it much more likely they'll win the game.

So, it's important to remember in addition to what the Game Changer list is, it's also important to remember what it is not. It isn't a list of every card which has been or can be oppressive or used in a powerful way. It isn't a list of cards which ruin your playgroup or even have negatively affected you throughout your time playing (mine are Doubling Season and Sharuum the Hegemon - I've never played against either one of those cards and liked it, and I've never seen them used nicely, even though surely they could be and I don't think they belong on the list!).

I'd also like to point out the Game Changers List only affects the first three Brackets. If you're pretty much living in Brackets 4 and 5, this doesn't matter to you - the only list you need is the Banned list.

Additionally, there are a few specific categories of cards which are discussed in terms of the Brackets: mass Land denial, extra turns, two-card infinite combos, and tutors. With one exception, cards which do these things (we'll go through them in a second) do not belong on the list, because they're already noted separately from the rest of the Game Changers List.

Mass Land Denial

Gavin says "Mass Land Denial" is this:

We talked about whether Armageddon should be on the list, but ultimately I don't think it needs to be. If you're running a card which messes with more than four Lands, you're Bracket 4 according to this system, regardless of your interaction with the Game Changers List.

Extra Turns

See above. If you're Prowling Notorious Throng, it doesn't matter how theme-y or otherwise non-competitive your deck is - it's a Bracket 2, because you simply cannot have extra turns in Bracket 1. Gavin, however, points out we can still have Rule Zero conversations, so if you have a Rogues Kindred deck which is otherwise quite tame and silly, tell the table "this is Bracket 1 but I do have Notorious Throng, which means I might take an extra turn if I get lucky". I imagine no one will mind.

Expropriate is on the Game Changers list not because it takes extra turns, but because it is so incredibly powerful. We had a talk about Time Stretch vs. Expropriate, and some writers were arguing if Expropriate is on the list, Time Stretch should be too - but I disagree. There is a massive difference between two extra turns and that's it and the possibility of up to four extra turns, or even one extra turn and the three best permanents on the board is a very powerful swing. Game-changing, even.

Two-card Infinite Combos

If every card that were a part of a two-card infinite combo was on the Game Changer list, it would be a VERY long list. Are you running Deadeye Navigator and Great Whale? Is your commander one half of a combo and you assemble that combo to win the game? You're probably Bracket 4. Maybe 3 if it's a pocket combo you have to find and only deploy at the end when everyone's ready for the game to end anyway.

Tutors

This is the one big miss on the Game Changers List as far as I'm concerned, though Gavin does explain it. Brackets 1 and 2 both call out tutors (any tutor except for Land fetch, so Cultivate is okay) specifically - "Few tutors". Brackets 3 and higher have no limitations.

As far as I'm concerned, that covers it: from my perspective, a Bracket 2 deck which is running Diabolic Tutor could run Demonic Tutor in that same spot with little to no change to the game. Since you're not tutoring for a two-card infinite combo (if you were, you'd be in a different Bracket), you're not up to mischief with your tutors, so it doesn't really matter to me which one you're using.

Gavin points out the reason they called out the ones they did is because they are "best-in-class" and they "tend to find combo pieces or just homogenize the game to play out similarly."

I think the argument is a bit more nuanced and a decent argument - the tutors they named require a level of investment in the game many casual players don't make. If you're a casual builder who spent $30 on a precon and another $15 to upgrade it a little with some pet cards, you're not running Vampiric or Enlightened Tutor. The tutors on the list require a financial commitment which suggests you are probably already playing at a higher power level, so therefore you're likely tutoring for something which will drastically shift the power structure of the game.

I understand this, I just disagree. Because a card can do something powerful doesn't mean it must. I regularly build decks for this very site which are likely Bracket 1 but run a huge amount of tutors because they are attempting to assemble some absurd glass-cannon of a seven-card combo to win or whatever. Running Demonic Tutor does not mean I'm going to suddenly win the game.

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur completely changes the state of the 'field as long as it's out. If you tutor for that, you're at least in Bracket 3. But if you got a copy of Demonic Tutor from your older brother who gave you his shoebox of cards from 1994 and have it in your deck as a way to find Disenchant when someone else plays Opposition, I don't think that should force you into Bracket 3. CFP, take note, because this is my biggest feedback - I recommend removing the tutors from the Game Changers list, and instead trusting the players and the community to be honest about what their use for the tutors is and Bracket accordingly.

Final Thoughts

I've never been a particularly competitive Commander player. I like playing, and while I enjoy winning, not winning is often just as much fun for me. My first introduction to the banned list was when I had to take Primeval Titan out of my Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer deck.

I'm bringing this up because Primetime is a very particular card - it makes itself the focus of whatever game it's in. That is the function of the banned and restricted list - it's not to shut down entire ideas (Land fetch, for example) nor to kill particular combos, but to identify specific cards which warp the game in a particularly unfun way.

The Game Changers List, according to the CFP, is a step between "this card is legal in Commander" and "this card is banned in Commander." Cyclonic Rift is very powerful and makes it highly likely the person who Overloads it will win the game, because they're the only one left with a board state. That will likely be profoundly un-fun for someone who's running a deck with nothing but cards with animals in the art, but probably expected from someone running a high-powered Chulane deck.

Ultimately, my point is the goal of the Game Changers list is particularly narrow: to limit interaction with cards which almost always warp the game around themselves. This is not the thing you find unfun, or the thing your playgroup doesn't like, or a card which is oppressive (Opposition) or powerful (Craterhoof Behemoth).

I appreciate the work of the CFP, both in creating this system (which I think is worth a try) and the time and energy they clearly put into it. I also very much appreciate that they're asking the community for feedback.

Thanks for reading.