Magic: The Gathering Bracket System

This information will help determine your deck power level. This is pulled directly from Wizards of the Coast website.

Commander Brackets Overview

There are five Commander Brackets. Each one is meant to classify a different kind of game experience. Brackets 1, 2, and 3 are different levels of socially focused play. Brackets 4 and 5 are focused on a higher power or even a competitive experience.

In each bracket description, you'll also find guidance around four kinds of effects that can really impact games: two-card infinite combos, extra turns, mass land denial, and tutors (for things other than lands), noting where and how you should expect to see them.

For a little bit of additional definition around "mass land denial," this is a category of card that most Commander players find frustrating. So, to emphasize it up front, you should not expect to see these cards anywhere in Brackets 1–3.

These cards regularly destroy, exile, and bounce other lands, keep lands tapped, or change what mana is produced by four or more lands per player without replacing them. Examples in this category are Armageddon, Ruination, Sunder, Winter Orb, and Blood Moon. Basically, any cards and common game plans that mess with several of people's lands or the mana they produce should not be in your deck if you're seeking to play in Brackets 1–3.

Additionally, you'll also see some references to the Game Changers list. This is a new, small list of cards we'll share at the end that these brackets refer to and are cards targeted at higher-bracket play.

First, let us show you the brackets.

The Five Brackets

Bracket 1: Exhibition

Experience: Throw down with your ultra-casual Commander deck!

Winning is not the primary goal here, as it's more about showing off something unusual you've made. Villains yelling in the art? Everything has the number four? Oops, all Horses? Those are all fair game! The games here are likely to go long and end slowly.

Just focus on having fun and enjoying what the table has brought!

Deck Building: No cards from the Game Changers list. No intentional two-card infinite combos, mass land denial, or extra-turn cards. Tutors should be sparse.

Bracket 2: Core

Experience: The easiest reference point is that the average current preconstructed deck is at a Core (Bracket 2) level.

While Bracket 2 decks may not have every perfect card, they have the potential for big, splashy turns, strong engines, and are built in a way that works toward winning the game. While the game is unlikely to end out of nowhere and generally goes nine or more turns, you can expect big swings. The deck usually has some cards that aren't perfect from a gameplay perspective but are there for flavor reasons, or just because they bring a smile to your face.

Deck Building: No cards from the Game Changers list. No intentional two-card infinite combos or mass land denial. Extra-turn cards should only appear in low quantities and are not intended to be chained in succession or looped. Tutors should be sparse.

Bracket 3: Upgraded

Experience: These decks are souped up and ready to play beyond the strength of an average preconstructed deck.

They are full of carefully selected cards, with work having gone into figuring out the best card for each slot. The games tend to be a little faster as well, ending a turn or two sooner than your Core (Bracket 2) decks. This also is where players can begin playing up to three cards from the Game Changers list, amping up the decks further. Of course, it doesn't have to have any Game Changers to be a Bracket 3 deck: many decks are more powerful than a preconstructed deck, even without them!

These decks should generally not have any two-card infinite combos that can happen cheaply and in about the first six or so turns of the game, but it's possible the long game could end with one being deployed, even out of nowhere.

Deck Building: Up to three cards from the Game Changers list. No intentional early-game two-card infinite combos. Extra-turn cards should only appear in low quantities and are not intended to be chained in succession or looped. No mass land denial.

Bracket 4: Optimized

Experience: It's time to go wild!

Bring out your strongest decks and cards. You can expect to see explosive starts, strong tutors, cheap combos that end games, mass land destruction, or a deck full of cards off the Game Changers list. This is high-powered Commander, and games have the potential to end quickly.

The focus here is on bringing the best version of the deck you want to play, but not one built around a tournament metagame. It's about shuffling up your strong and fully optimized deck, whatever it may be, and seeing how it fares. For most Commander players, these are the highest-power Commander decks you will interact with.

Deck Building: There are no restrictions (other than the banned list).

Bracket 5: cEDH

Experience: This is high power with a very competitive and metagame-focused mindset.

"Mindset" is a key part of that description: Much of it is in how you approach the format and deck building. It's not just no holds barred, where you play your most powerful cards like in Bracket 4. It requires careful planning: There is care paid into following and paying attention to a metagame and tournament structure, and no sacrifices are made in deck building as you try to be the one to win the pod. Additionally, there is special care and attention paid to behavior and tableside negotiation (such as not making spite plays or concessions) that play into the tournament structure.

cEDH, or "competitive Commander" and similar names, is where winning matters more than self-expression. You might not be playing your favorite cards or commanders, as pet cards are usually replaced with cards needed in the meta, but you're playing what you think will be most likely to win.

Deck Building: There are no restrictions (other than the banned list).

The Game Changers List

What is the Game Changers list?

You saw several mentions of this list above. This is something new that we want to introduce. We think it will be a huge help for matchmaking and understanding the format.

Game Changers dramatically warp Commander games, allowing players to run away with resources, shift games in ways that many players dislike, block people from play, efficiently search for their strongest cards, or have commanders that tend to take away from more casual games. And unlike some previous systems that were discussed, it's only a single additional list to track.

In addition to that function, you can imagine this as a sort of watch-list. Any future bans are likely to come from this list, save for maybe something that shows up in a new set and immediately causes problems, like Nadu. Similarly, unbanned cards are likely to end up here. This creates a nice half-step between the banned list and showing up everywhere. It also really helps ensure that you know what cards we have our eyes on so cards won't feel like they're banned out of nowhere in the future.

It also gives us a tool to unban cards to try them or nudge around cards without a ban needed. If a card shows up and is frustrating at casual tables but fine by competitive players, we can add it to the Game Changers list in an update to get it to the right place. And similarly, if times or opinions change and a card on this list looks fine in casual play now, we can take it off. It's not unlike how Canadian Highlander adjusts point values every now and then.

Now, to be clear: most of these cards are unlikely to be banned. You shouldn't go trading away your Gaea's Cradles in concern. However, it is a clear signal for players to know that these cards indicate a different kind of play and that others might prefer not to play against them.

We all discussed a lot what we felt should be on this list to make it useful but manageable and ended up at exactly 40 cards. (That number being round is just coincidence; this list doesn't always have to be 40 cards.) Here is our initial Game Changers list for the Commander Brackets beta test: