In breaking news this morning, the Commander Rules Committee officially handed over control of the Commander format to Wizards of the Coast. The news broke after five days of silence following the Rules Committee’s release of its FAQ document regarding the recent bannings in Commander.
The Commander format has been a fan-managed format since its inception, with the Rules Committee at the helm for nearly 20 years.
The Commander RC’s official announcement is as follows:
The Commander Rules Committee stated that they were unable to continue operating independently due to the backlash received from the ban announcement.
In particular, the RC received threats against individual members, which moderators at the official RC discord server described as credible, and stated that they were forwarded to law enforcement.
Wizards of the Coast released a joint statement with the Commander RC below:
Although ownership of the Commander format is changing, Wizards of the Coast says they are committed to listening to players in its management. Members of the Commander RC were invited to continue advising on the format’s development, and players were invited to join the Magic Discord with a new Commander channel for news.
While ownership of the format may be changing, members of the Rules Committee and others in the community will continue to be involved, and the vision for a social format will not change. We’ve had some preliminary conversations already about what we would like to accomplish and have some ideas we will be rolling out together in the months to come.
Working with the community to craft this format is critical to all of us. We have opened a new Discord channel on the official Magic Discord (in the #Comman1der_News channel) and will also have a WeeklyMTG stream talking about this tomorrow, October 1, at 10 a.m. PT on Twitch.tv/Magic.
via Wizards of the Coast
Individuals of the Commander Rules Committee also went to X (formerly Twitter) to make a statement regarding the transfer of ownership to Magic: The Gathering and their involvement with the Rules Committee.
The other two members of the Rules Committee, Scott Larabee and Gavin Duggan, have yet to make an official statement. Gavin did make a post earlier last week praising moderators for their work moderating discussion on the RC discord server.
The Commander RC has made clear this is not the outcome they desired, but as Jim said in his statement, they did not believe the Committee had the resources at their disposal to manage a format of this size as a group composed of part-time volunteers.
As of the time of writing, Wizards of the Coast and the Commander Rules Committee have made no statement as to what direction future bannings or unbannings in the format will take, or if the current philosophy will change.
Stay tuned to MTG Insider for more updates on the Commander format and breaking Magic: The Gathering news.
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