The Reunion Commander's Rules Committee is disbanded

Key recommendations

Wizards of the Coast is taking over the management of Magic: The Gathering's Commander format from the community.
Four powerful cards have been banned from Commander because they are too powerful for casual players.
Proposed power level bracketing system for Commander decks to rank power based on included cards.

Wizards of the Coast has announced that it is taking over Magic: The Gatheringthe popular Commander format, taking over from the Community Commander Rules Committee. This comes after a tumultuous week for Magic: The Gathering which resulted from major and unexpected formatter card bans.

The community saw a wild tumult after four strong Magic: The Gathering cards were banned from Commander: quick mana artifacts Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus, combo creature Dockside Extortionist, and Nadu's constant value generator Winged Wisdom, which was already exiled from other tournament formats. The Commander Rules Committee deemed these four cards too strong for the format as a whole, choosing to remove them entirely to spare casual players from the more competitive ones.

In an announcement, Wizards of the Coast said it was taking over for Commander. In the wake of the bans, disgruntled players have not only expressed their anger at the developments, but some have also taken to threatening the five members of the Commander's Rules Committee, leading to the resignation of prominent members . Magic: The Gathering community figures. In assuming oversight of the format, Wizards protects community representatives from further harm and lends Commander expertise in game development and management.

A possible new way to classify commander packs

Although Wizards will still remain the official face and authority of the Commander format, it has been said that some members of the Rules Committee will still be involved in input. Another big vision the company is trying to implement is developing power-level conversations in Commander playgroups, proposing a bracketing and leveling system that would help rank the power of individual decks based on certain cards included. The suggested system would tier decks based on their strongest cards and help tell if a particular deck is fun and balanced, but it would also involve a lot of painstaking work and thorough conversations to ensure its effectiveness.

Meanwhile, any fixes suggested after the big bans are more long-term solutions. A major concern at this point is the sudden removal of these outstanding values cards, in which many players have invested considerable sums. Many are trying to sell as fast as they can, while the books still have relative value and some are adaptable. Magic: The Gathering vendors refund players who have recently purchased from them.

And while the bans have upset many players, it's also entirely possible that these changes could be reversed. A petition to drop the bans has already received thousands of signatures from Magic: The Gathering players, and with Wizards taking over the format, this may continue to happen as the company has shown at times that it listens to the pulse of the player base.