Update August 15th, 2022: We previously said that there would be a commander night on September 3rd, this is incorrect. September 2nd and September 3rd are the Dominaria United prerelease dates, with Friday (2nd) being a regular prerelease and Saturday (3rd) being a 2 Headed Giant Prerelease. We had some dates wrong and apologize.
We have reached the end of Commander (not) Legends: Battle For Baldur's Gate season, and we will be in a (somewhat welcome) lull for the next two Saturdays until the Dominaria United prerelease on September 2nd. Below we will talk about the special points you can get and how to get a multiplier with no current season below, and below that we will discuss the difference in our different Commander play options as well as discuss power levels and the obnoxiousness that we all need to face when it comes to Magic's most popular eternal format. (And remember, utilizing our point multiplier is optional and encouraged, but never required)
August 20th, 2022 Effect
1.5 Multiplier: Mono color identity Commander. (No partner, friends forever, or backgrounds outside of your one color identity)
Plane: Blind Eternities
Emblem: Mana - Split
Effect: "At the beginning of the game after mulligans before the first player's upkeep, search your library for any number of basic land cards, exile them in a face-down pile, and shuffle that pile. Then shuffle your library.
If you would draw a card, you may instead put the top card of the pile you exiled into your hand, if you do, until end of turn, if you would draw a card due to a spell or ability you control, you don't instead."
Two libraries, perfect mana curves, what could go wrong? Lots actually. When designing this emblen we knew certain decks could be built (very cheaply I might add) to win as early as turn 0/1, but keep in mind that in order to so, you'd almost guarantee you got 0 points (you're going to need some turn 0/1 mana rocks, and each of those are going to nick you for -5 points, add in that if you were to attempt a board lock, your opponents will most likely vote you out as 1st place with 0 points. With that being said, if you design a deck around this effect to exploit it to an extreme; please let us know so we can attempt to place you with others that have done the same. In addition, we are adding a sub-clause for this week only
"If you win 1st on turn 1 or with less than 5 points, then 2nd place will become eligible for the special points instead"
While we would love for everyone to build crazy decks for this, we know not everyone has the time, money, nor intrest in doing so.
August 27th, 2022 effect
1.5 multiplier: Commanders without activated or triggered abilities.
Plane: Dominaria
Emblem: Otaria
Effect: “Instant and sorcery cards in graveyards have flashback. The flashback cost is equal to the card's mana cost. (Its owner may cast the card from their graveyard for its mana cost. Then they exile it.)
Roll a D20: If you roll a 14 or higher you take an extra turn after this one, if you do take an extra turn, you cannot activate this ability again this game. This ability may not be the target of spells or abilities that you control. Activate this only on your turn and only once each turn”
This effect, while it may seem strong is pretty tame. While we do anticipate a few shenanigans, we don't expect this to warp games into unrecognizable messes. If you activate the extra turn ability, and it fails you will be able to try again on your next turn, if you roll successfully, you cannot activate it ever again.
September 2nd & 3rd 2022
Friday, September 2nd 2022: Dominaria United Prerelease
Saturday, September 3rd 2022: Dominaria United 2HG Prerelease
August 20th - August 27th Special Points
Poisonous: Inflect infect on another player.
And their Gone: Remove 10 or more creatures from the battlefield in a single turn. (Exile, destroy, bounce, etc)
Grave Robber: Remove 10 or more creatures from graveyards in a single turn. (Exile, reanimate, shuffle back into deck, etc)
The Engine: Cause 10 or more cards to be drawn in a single turn.
Krillin'd: "Chump" block a creature with power 15 or more. (Your creature cannot survive, and the attacker must survive)
Aggro is an Archetype: Deal 10 or more damage to each opponent in a single turn.
I made Friends: Control 3 or more planeswalkers.
Walker's aren't Loyal: Bring a planeswalker to 0 loyalty by dealing damage to it.
The Librarian: Have 20 or more cards in your hand.
The obnoxiousness that is Commander
We love commander, we think it's ability for creativity is without comparison in any other format, much less any other hobby. But with it comes a grave warning ⚠️ Commander is a broken format, and that's what makes it so great. When we design our Commander Night effects, some of them end up underpowered, some of them end up over powered, and some of them just fall flat and aren't fun at all, but it allows us to take the game and shift around the power scales into some amazing plays you may never get to see otherwise. It is important to remember, that we made the decision early on to make sure that all players had it within their control to not lose any money when it comes to these events, we made sure our negative points would not encroach on any player's creativity; and while we retain the right to ban cards outright for the health of these events, have chosen so far (with the exception of some silver boarder cards during October) to use the official banlist as to not restrict that same deck building creativity. With all of that being said, Commander is 100% not meant to be competitive, it's meant as a fun thing you sit down and discuss with like minded individuals and have some laughs with, this of course is a direct oxymoron to these events that we have deemed "Casual-Competitive", which means the competitive level of these events are only created through your own mind when you sit down, you are in complete control, and while there are prizes to be won, there is nothing to be lost in most cases. If you don't wish to support these events, we have free Friday Night Magic almost every Friday, and those events are purely casual where you find your own playgroup, have your rule 0 discussions, and enjoy your night.
Power Levels
We just touched on the difference in our free FNM events vs our Saturday Commander Nights in detail, here I'm going to touch on the definition of power levels and how we plan to seat people on Saturdays (Not Fridays, because remember that's up to you who you sit with)
There is no way to quantify a decks power level with any meaning. Your 1 could be someone else's 10. You can discuss what turn everyone is looking to win, you can discuss infinite combos, you can discuss until your face turns blue and there is no way to objectively define power levels. So what to do? Impact creativity with bans? No. But there are cards out there that in general are only used in higher power decks, and the more of them you have, the more likely it is, while still not a guarantee in either power direction, it's the best system we have came up with after gathering feedback over the last two months.
We have designed a list of cards we deem as power indicators. We ask that you count the number of cards you have on this list in your chosen deck for Commander Nights prior to us seating players, those with a higher count will be more likely to be seated together, and those without will be more likely to be seated together. Does this mean if you have every card on the list you'll end up a higher power table? No, because it's still subjective; but we do believe it will go a long way to improving overall moral when sitting down for a fun experience.
The Cards
Creatures
Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper
Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker
Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor
Consuming Aberration
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
Urza, Lord High Artificer
Thassa's Oracle
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
Sen Triplets
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Hokori, Dust Drinker
Opposition Agent
Narset, Enlightened Master
Emrakul, the Promised End
Dockside Extortionist
Blightsteel Colossus
Notion Thief
Instants
Sunder
Cyclonic Rift
Fierce Guardianship
Nexus of Fate
Sorceries
Expropriate
Armageddon
Jokulhaups
Ravages of War
Obliterate
Decree of Annihilation
Devastation
Apocalypse
Time Stretch
Epicenter
Global Ruin
Tectonic Break
Scrambleverse
Warp World
Wake of Destruction
Ruination
Artifacts
Winter Orb
Static Orb
Mindslaver
Smokestack
Enchantments
Stasis
Rising Waters
Rhystic Study
Back to Basics
Nether Void
Impending Disaster
Humility
Blood Moon
Thieves' Auction
Mana Vortex
Planeswalkers
Narset, Parter of Veils
Teferi, Time Raveler
Oko, Thief of Crowns
Lands
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
Gaea's Cradle
And again, a player can easily build very powerful oppressive decks with 0 of these cards as well as some jank do-nothing deck with every single one, but without restricting creativity this is currently our best course of action to balance out our Commander Nights. (And if you feel your deck is more high power, but with none or very few of these cards, speak up and let us know).
In addition to the above, we started tracking wins on August 13th, everytime you win a pod you will get an additional +1 to your power level regardless of deck building which will push you towards higher power tables, this number will half itself every time you do not come in first..