What is Commander in MTG? The format for new players

Commander is a casual, multiplayer way to play MTG. Each player builds a deck of exactly 100 cards led by a legendary creature, the commander, with only one copy of any card that is not a basic land, using only cards whose colours fit the commander's. Everyone starts at 40 life, the commander waits in its own zone, from where you can cast it, and the usual table is four players, everyone against everyone. Games are longer and more social than a two-player duel, and the deck you build never rotates out of the format. The rules of the variant are section 903 of the Comprehensive Rules, and the format has its own official page and its own ban list; both are quoted below, with the dates we read them. Its official home is the Commander format page at Wizards of the Coast.

This guide is for someone at their first table or building their first deck, and it ends with a way to get a first deck without buying a card.

How Commander differs from Standard

Standard is the two-player format built from the newest sets. Commander changes almost every number that defines it.

Two rows explain most of the feel of the format. One copy of each card means a 99-card library plays differently every game, and 40 life means games have room for big spells, comebacks and table talk. The official page's own reasons to play are short: "Multiplayer games", "Great to play with friends", and "Cards don't rotate".

What defines a commander

Your commander is a legendary card you designate as the deck's leader. Under rule 903.3 it must be a creature card, a Vehicle card, or a Spacecraft card with a power and toughness box, and being a commander is an attribute of the card itself, so it stays your commander when it changes zones. Some cards carry the line "can be your commander", which rule 903.3a treats as a change to the deck construction rules: Teferi, Temporal Archmage is a planeswalker with that line, so it can lead a deck. Cards with a partner ability let you designate two commanders instead of one, still inside 100 cards (rules 702.124a and 702.124b): Thrasios, Triton Hero and Tymna the Weaver are a well-known pair.

The commander decides three things about your game:

• The colours you can play. Every card in the deck must fit the commander's colour identity (rules 903.4 and 903.5c), explained in the next section. Krenko, Mob Boss costs {2}{R}{R}, so a Krenko deck is red and colourless cards only. Atraxa, Praetors' Voice costs {G}{W}{U}{B}, so an Atraxa deck can use four colours.
• A card you always have. At the start of the game your commander goes face up into the command zone and you shuffle the other 99 to form your library (rule 903.6). You may cast it from there, and each cast from the command zone after the first costs {2} more, the "commander tax" (rule 903.8). If it goes to a graveyard or to exile you may move it back to the command zone (rule 903.9a), and if it would go to your hand or library you may put it into the command zone instead (rule 903.9b). Krenko costs four mana the first time, six the second, eight the third.
• A second way to win. A player who has been dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander over the game loses (rule 903.10a), whatever their life total says. Players call it commander damage.

The deck construction rules, or what makes a deck illegal

Rule 903.5 lists five construction rules: four a deck can fail (903.5a to 903.5d) and 903.5e, which says Commander uses no sideboard. The format adds one more rule from outside the Comprehensive Rules. A deck breaks the format if it fails any one of these:

1. It does not have exactly 100 cards, commander included (rule 903.5a). Not 99, not 101.
2. It has two copies of a card that is not a basic land (rule 903.5b). Names are compared in English whatever language the card is printed in (rule 201.2), and two cards that do the same thing under different names are still two different cards. The one exception is a pair whose names are interchangeable: those count as a single name for deck construction (rules 903.5b and 201.3b).
3. It has a card outside the commander's colour identity (rule 903.5c). Colour identity is every mana symbol in a card's cost and rules text, plus any colour a colour indicator or a characteristic-defining ability gives it (rule 903.4). Bosh, Iron Golem costs {8}, but the {3}{R} in its ability makes its identity red, the rules' own example. Hybrid symbols count for both colours: Wort, the Raidmother, {4}{R/G}{R/G}, is red and green. The back face of a double-faced card counts (rule 903.4d) and reminder text does not (rule 903.4c). So Lightning Bolt is fine in a Krenko deck and illegal in an Atraxa deck.
4. It has a land with a basic land type that makes a colour the commander does not have (rule 903.5d): no Island in a Wort deck.
5. It has a card from the ban list. This one is not a Comprehensive Rules item: rule 903 never names a banned card, the rules point to separate documents for limits on which cards may be used (rule 100.6), and rule 113.6n adds that even a card ability that changes deck construction "can't affect the format legality of a card, including whether it's banned or restricted". The format keeps its own list: as of October 20, 2026, 42 named cards, from Black Lotus to Mana Crypt, and three banned categories (Conspiracy cards, cards that play for ante, and cards with racially or culturally offensive content), with Lutri, the Spellchaser banned only as a companion. The Commander ban list has every card and the reason it is there.

There is no sideboard in Commander (rule 903.5e), so there is nothing to swap between games. If you build in the Mana Grove deck builder, the Validation tab checks all of this as you go: deck size, copy limits, the commander itself, colour identity and banned cards, each with its own line in the report.

What the point of Commander is

The official format page puts it in one sentence: "The Commander format is all about picking your hero and building a deck around them." You choose a legendary creature you like, then find 99 cards that make its plan work, and because only one copy of anything is allowed, the deck is a hundred decisions rather than a 60-card list built from four copies of fifteen cards. The page adds: "No matter the outcome, Commander gives players the tools to express themselves through strategy, skill, and a whole lot of deck building fun."

The 40-life total and the one-copy rule do the rest. Games last long enough for expensive spells to matter, three opponents mean every attack has to be aimed, and the table talks: who is the threat, who has the board wipe. That social layer is the format's identity; the Commander Rules Committee, which ran the format until 2024, wrote that its philosophy "prioritizes creativity" and that the rules and ban list "encourage a slower pace of game than traditional formats". It also means the table sets the tone, which is what the brackets, below, are for.

Four players, two players: how many people you need

Rule 903.2 says a Commander game "may be a two-player game or a multiplayer game", with Free-for-All and the attack-multiple-players option as the default for more than two: everyone plays for themselves, and you can attack any opponent, or several. The official page says the format "is for four players per game", lists the player count as three to five, and describes the free-for-all: players seated randomly in a circle, turns going clockwise, spells and abilities allowed to target anyone at the table.

So four is the default, not a rule. Three works, five works. Two-player Commander uses the same decks, the same 40 life and the same commander damage, with two differences worth knowing: the free first mulligan of multiplayer games (rule 103.5c) does not apply, and the player who goes first skips their first draw (rule 103.8a; in a multiplayer game nobody does, rule 103.8c). A first game, from setup to the two ways you lose, is walked through step by step in how to play Commander.

The 75 percent rule

Sooner or later someone will call their deck "a 75 percent deck". That is a community idea, not a rule: nothing in the Comprehensive Rules or on the official format page defines it. The phrase comes from a 2014 article series by the writer Jason Alt, who described building decks that are "75% of the way to an optimal build and just good enough to beat a deck built to be 100% optimal if I play tight and get lucky", while not being built to "turn four an entire table of casual players". The point was a deck that scales to the table: strong enough to fight a tuned deck, restrained enough not to ruin a casual one.

In everyday use, "75 percent" means a deck that is well built and interactive but deliberately not pushed to its limit. It is a self-description, so it varies from player to player. Since 2025 the brackets are the official vocabulary for the same conversation; if a friend says 75 percent, ask which bracket they mean.

The brackets, in one paragraph

Brackets are the five-level scale the Commander Format Panel introduced in 2025 for describing a deck's power before the first shuffle: Bracket 1 (Exhibition), Bracket 2 (Core), Bracket 3 (Upgraded), Bracket 4 (Optimized) and Bracket 5 (cEDH). The official page calls them "an entirely optional way to help matchmake your Commander games", and the mechanical part is a list of Game Changers, cards that "can dramatically warp Commander games": Brackets 1 and 2 exclude them, Bracket 3 allows up to three, and Brackets 4 and 5 have no limit. Rhystic Study, {2}{U}, draws you a card whenever an opponent casts a spell unless they pay {1}, and it is on that list. Our brackets guide describes Bracket 2 as where most casual decks sit; Commander brackets explained covers what each bracket permits and how to tell your pod.

Is 32 lands enough for a Commander deck?

Usually not. Our lands guide works through the math for a 99-card library: most decks want 36 to 38 lands plus 8 to 12 ramp pieces, and it calls anything under 33 a competitive-table choice that most decks cannot afford. At 33 lands, the lowest row in its table, only 43 percent of opening hands hold three or more lands; 32 is worse. Start at 37 and read How many lands go in a Commander deck? before you cut.

Your first Commander deck

You do not need to buy anything to find out whether you like the format:

• Tell Grover what you like. Try Grover, our AI deck assistant, with no account: describe the deck you want in a sentence ("a Goblin deck with Krenko for a casual table") and it builds the whole Commander list, with the reasoning behind every pick. One build is free on the demo page; the free plan then includes more. How to build a Commander deck with an AI assistant covers the rest.
• Borrow a list. Browse public decks built by other Commander players, filter by commander or archetype, and copy any list into a deck of your own to study or change.
• Start from the commander. The Commander hub lets you search commanders by name or colour identity and read the average deck other players run with each one, so you can pick the hero first.

A preconstructed Commander deck, a ready-to-play 100-card deck sold by the publisher, is the other common starting point; the official format page lists the current ones. Whichever way you start, four cards turn up in list after list:

• Sol Ring, {1}: taps for {C}{C}, "the iconic card of the format" in the words of the people who ran it.
• Arcane Signet, {2}: taps for one mana of any colour in your commander's colour identity.
• Command Tower, a land that taps for any colour in your commander's colour identity.
• Swords to Plowshares, {W}: exiles a creature, and its controller gains life equal to its power. One mana answers almost any creature.

Frequently asked questions

What is Commander (EDH) in MTG?

Commander, also called EDH, is a casual multiplayer MTG format in which each player brings a deck of exactly 100 cards, one copy of each card other than basic lands, led by a legendary commander whose colour identity every card must fit, and starts at 40 life (rules 903.5a, 903.5b, 903.5c and 903.7).

How is Commander different from Standard MTG?

Commander decks have exactly 100 cards with one copy of each, are led by a legendary commander, start at 40 life, usually seat four players, and draw on the whole history of the game. Standard decks have at least 60 cards with up to four copies, start at 20 life, are played one on one, and lose their six oldest sets once a year.

What defines a commander in MTG?

A legendary card that is a creature, a Vehicle, or a Spacecraft with a power and toughness box (rule 903.3), or any card with the line "can be your commander" (rule 903.3a). It starts in the command zone, costs {2} more each time it is cast from there after the first, and sets the colour identity every other card must fit.

What is the point of Commander?

Building a deck around a hero you chose and playing it with friends in games long enough for every card to matter. The official page's reasons: multiplayer games, playing with friends, and a card pool that does not rotate.

Is Commander only for four players?

No. Four is the table the official page describes, and it lists three to five players. The rules allow any number from two up, with Free-for-All as the default above two.

Can I play two-player Commander?

Yes. Rule 903.2 allows a two-player game with the same decks, the same 40 life and the same 21 commander damage. The free first mulligan of multiplayer games does not apply, and the player who goes first skips their first draw.

What makes a Commander deck illegal?

The wrong card count, a second copy of a nonbasic card, a card or a basic land type outside the commander's colour identity, or a banned card. The deck builder's Validation tab reports each one.

Is 32 lands enough for Commander?

Rarely. Most decks want 36 to 38 lands in the 99; 32 sits below the floor our lands guide sets even for low-curve decks full of cheap ramp.

Why do people prefer Commander over Standard?

The deck never rotates, the games are multiplayer and social, and the one-copy rule makes every deck personal. The trade is time: about two hours a game, the 120 minutes the official page lists.

What is the 75 percent rule in Commander?

A community shorthand from Jason Alt's 2014 articles for a deck built about three quarters of the way to its strongest version: able to fight tuned decks, not built to crush casual ones. It is not a rule; the brackets now cover the same conversation officially.

Sources

• Comprehensive Rules, effective September 25, 2026, section 903 (Commander) and rules 100.2a, 100.4a, 100.6, 103.4, 103.5c, 103.8a, 103.8c, 113.6n, 201.2, 201.3b, 702.124a and 702.124b: https://magic.wizards.com/en/rules. Read on October 20, 2026, from the snapshot our rules engine keeps. Deck construction, the command zone, the commander tax, commander damage, the 40-life start, the player options, the first draw of a two-player game and the colour identity examples.
• Commander format page, magic.wizards.com: https://magic.wizards.com/en/formats/commander. Read on October 20, 2026. The player count, the game length, the reasons to play, the quoted sentences, the free-for-all description, the Brackets and Game Changers sections and the current preconstructed decks.
• Standard format page, magic.wizards.com: https://magic.wizards.com/en/formats/standard. Read on October 20, 2026. The deck size, the two-player count, the game length and the yearly rotation.
• Banned and Restricted list, Commander section, magic.wizards.com: https://magic.wizards.com/en/banned-restricted-list. Read on October 20, 2026. The 42 named cards, the three categories and the Lutri note.
• "Commander Banned and Restricted Announcement, September 23, 2024", Commander Rules Committee, magic.wizards.com: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/commander-banned-and-restricted-announcement-september-23-2024. Read on October 20, 2026. The "prioritizes creativity", "slower pace of game" and "iconic card of the format" quotations.
• "Introducing Commander Brackets Beta", magic.wizards.com, February 11, 2025: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/introducing-commander-brackets-beta. Read on October 20, 2026. The five bracket names.
• Jason Alt, "Building a 75% Commander Deck", February 13, 2014. Read on October 20, 2026. The article that coined the term and the two quotations above; it is published on a card retailer's site, which we do not link.
• Mana Grove card database, MTGJSON build of September 14, 2026: the mana costs, rules text, colour identity and Commander legality of every card named above.

This article is updated when the Comprehensive Rules or the official format page change something it states. The date at the top is the last revision.