MTG Commander Power Brackets: Quick Guide and Deck Impact

As part of Wizards of the Coast’s takeover announcement of the Commander format this week, a new way to segment the format has been officially revealed.

Players will be able to join pods based on a new tier or bracket system, that categorizes decks based on power level. The strength of a deck will be determined by the power level of the cards it contains.

The Official Commander Power Bracket Preview

Above is the initial draft of the Commander Power Bracket system. Decks are categorized into the following power levels or tiers:

Level 4 – High Power & High Salt cards such as Vampiric Tutor and Armageddon
Level 3 – Conditionally High Power cards such as Personal Tutor and Drannith Magistrate
Level 2 – Average Power cards such as Fabricate and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Level 1 – Low Power or very palatable cards such as Swords to Plowshares and Grave Titan

According to Wizards of the Coast, the general purpose of the Commander Power Brackets will be to help players find pods of similar power levels or to have pregame conversations that better identify what power level a deck is.

What Commander Cards Will Be In Each Power Bracket?

Cards will be determined for each power bracket based on community feedback and outreach from Magic: The Gathering. While cards may be initially placed in the wrong power bracket from the start, MTG hopes that through community feedback they can adjust what cards are in which bracket over time so they are relatively in line with how the community perceives each card.

Not every card in existence will be included in each power bracket. The Power Bracket is meant as a guide. We can expect that most powerful and controversial cards to be bracketed though.

Cards that are individually weak but are part of powerful combos will also be placed in the appropriate power level based on the combo’s strength. For example, Thassa’s Oracle would likely appear toward Bracket 4.

Cards will not be placed in a bracket based purely on power level. Cards that are less casual-friendly, such as Winter Orb and Armageddon would appear in the top-Power Level brackets for that reason. MTG’s reason for this is they want players to “opt in” to those experiences, rather than potentially playing in the blind against decks with these level of cards.

An initial community survey of Commander players revealed where some cards may end up. It is available here.

What Determines The Power Level of My Commander Deck?

Your Commander deck’s Power Level Bracket is whatever bracket the most powerful card in your deck is. For example, if you have a single card that is Power Level 4, then your deck is considered Power Level 4.

Let’s say you are running a coin flip deck that wants to run Mana Crypt for the coin toss and everything else in the deck is power level 1. Then you could tell your table, “I’m a Power Level 1 deck with a single copy of Mana Crypt, is that ok?”.

This illustrates that a player acknowledges they are playing with a high power level card, and helps drive a pre-game conversation based on it. That is the intent MTG is hoping to achieve with this Power Bracket system.

Will Any Commander Cards Be Unbanned With Power Brackets?

Wizards of the Coast has mentioned that they will not be banning any new cards anytime soon, but will be reviewing the banned list exhaustively. This indicates that there is potential for cards to be unbanned.

Not only is there a potential for unbannings, a power bracket system makes unbannings much more likely. Rather than ban broken cards such as Jeweled Lotus or Mana Crypt, MTG can simply place them in the Power Level 4 bracket if they become too powerful.

What is the Point of the Power Bracket System in Commander?

The purpose of the Power Bracket system isn’t to be perfect. It’s to steer Rule Zero conversation around what kind of game everyone wants to be playing. By simplifying the level of power of Commander decks into 4 categories, Wizards of the Coast hopes players are more informed about the expected game experience before a casual game of Commander begins.

This isn’t meant to override any Rule Zero conversations a table may have, but to be a good starting point and steer conversations in the right direction. As WotC said, everyone tends to believe their deck is a 7 when having a pregame conversation, and a more formal Power Bracket guide helps put more concrete numbers to decks.

Regardless of the Power Bracket guide, Power Level 1 decks can still play against Power Level 4 decks. Players don’t even need to reference their deck’s Power Bracket at all. This is just meant to be an aid or additional tool to help players find the matches they desire.

Additionally, WotC stated that they are exploring app integration ideas to help players find appropriate playgroups based on their deck’s power level.