Is Commander Bigger than Magic?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for a few years now or are just getting back into Magic: The Gathering, you already know that Commander is the most popular way to play Magic. Wizards of The Coast (WOTC) has admitted they’re putting more focus than ever into the format once known as Elder Dragon Highlander, but this raises a question: 

Is the focus shifting to Commander a good thing for Magic?

What is Commander?

At its inception Magic has always been intended as a two player game, starting with 20 life points, a minimum of 40-60 cards in a deck, and a max of 4 copies of any card other than basic lands. Technically these rules weren’t set in stone until a few years later, but most agree it was around 1995 when WOTC published the rules for the Type I and Type II formats. Type I (A.K.A. Vintage) is a format where almost all Magic cards ever printed are legal for play. While Vintage still has a following over 30 years later, it was Type II that would go on to become the Standard for Magic (pun intended.)Type II (A.K.A. Standard) grabbed Magic players attention and never let go. To this day, WOTC produces its main line of Magic expansion sets with Standard in mind. Standard only allows the use of cards from the most recent expansion sets - currently, this includes any set less than 3 years old. Standard would dominate as the way to play Magic for years. It’s popularity and the ever growing meta-game of Vintage led to the birth of Modern. Each of these formats respect the basic rules of Magic: a 60 card minimum for decks, 20 life points, and 4 copies of the same card.

100 Cards Vs The World

Commander throws out almost everything set forth by Magic’s original formats. Decks must be 100 cards (no more and no less), players have a starting life of 40 points, 4 players are expected to play in every game, and no deck can have more than one of any card (excepting, of course, basic lands). Commander started sometime around the late 90s to the early 00s, founded by a group of friends who originally titled the format Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH).

The ‘Elder Dragon’ in EDH comes from the original five legendary Elder Dragons from Magic’s Legends expansion. Players were to pick one of the dragons and build their entire deck list using only cards whose color identity matched that of the Elder Dragon for their deck. Over time, the original rules shifted to allow any Legendary Creature in place of an Elder Dragon. This creature is what would become known as the Commander. It was in this new form that Commander would spread from playgroup to playgroup and from shop to shop for years. In 2011, after nearly a decade of growth, WOTC would officially bring Commander into the fold as an official format for Magic.

How Commander became Number 1

Commander would continue to grow after 2011, becoming a staple of casual Magic gameplay. It’s easy to understand why Commander became so popular - it’s an easy way for more than 2 people to enjoy a game of Magic at once. By 2020, game shops had seen a sharp rise in players asking for in-store Commander play, which resulted in a 211% jump in players signing up for registered events. Even when the world went on lockdown in 2020, WOTC gave Commander players a way to keep playing the game over the internet using SpellTable. 

WOTC’s attention to Commander started somewhat small, only printing a handful of new pre-constructed decks for the format each year. Attention to Commander would ramp up slowly, but with the introduction of Universes Beyond and Commander Masters, WOTC had put a new and laser guided focus on the format once ruled by Elder Dragons. Universes Beyond sets like Doctor Who and Fallout were never printed to be legal in 60 card formats like Modern and Standard, but fit perfectly into Commander.

Universal Attraction

The crossover series of Universes Beyond sets face plenty of criticism from Magic players, but one undeniable fact is that brands like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Final Fantasy, and Marvel Super Heroes are bringing new players into the fold with every release. It’s hard to find quantifiable numbers on how many new players to Magic are jumping into Standard or Commander, but it’s a safe bet to say that most of them are flocking to Commander, given all of their favorite crossovers have a pre-constructed deck for sale, but only for Commander.

Commander remains a titan of Magic here in 2026, so much so that it’d be a safe bet to say almost every Magic store runs at least one Commander event each week.

Is Commander the future of Magic?

Recent card designs have sparked discussion around the future of Magic, with lots of players convinced Standard sets are being built not around Standard, but for use later on in Commander decks. In 2017 the Ahmonket block only printed 17 new Legendary Creature cards into Standard, with all of their abilities synergizing with other cards in the set, or already in the Standard meta at release. But looking at Marvel’s Spiderman from 2025, Magic players were flooded with 79 new Legendary Creatures, with some synergies among them but little to tie these new cards into the existing meta.

While it’s not hard evidence, it doesn’t seem hard to argue that Magic’s design team is using Universes Beyond sets to create as many Legendary Creatures as possible from outside franchises to entice new players. In standard, a new player would have to get rid of their Iron Man cards after a few years, but in Commander your Tony Stark will never rotate out. It’s that context that makes Commander such an easier sell to new players as well.

With each new set of Magic cards using characters from a franchise not created by WOTC, we will see cards made for fans of that series to gravitate towards and make their own. Only in a format where your cards don’t go bad does the Universes Beyond model make sense. Selling a player a deck that they never have to ever change again is a great way to get someone into the game. But then your friend tells you that this new set has a card that can upgrade your deck so you go out and buy some product, then you see your friend play a Mana Drain and want one too, and next thing you know this fresh Commander player is spending money like your average MTG player, just not on the formats experienced players are used to. 

So ultimately, Commander is already the future of Magic, because the future of Magic seems tied into Universes Beyond.