Outraged Magic: The Gathering Fans Are Trying To Replace Commander Format

Wizards of the Coast still has a steep hill to climb in order to regain the trust of many Magic: The Gathering players, it would seem.

When the CCG’s creator confirmed last week that upcoming limited edition product, Secret Lair X The Walking Dead, would contain playable (i.e. tournament legal) cards with “mechanically unique” abilities not available anywhere else, a monsoon of negativity came crashing down on the company, criticizing it for what many believe to be a deliberate act of creating artificial scarcity. Indeed, while many of those cards included in the bundle are relatively unremarkable, that’s not the case for all of them. Rick, Steadfast Leader, for instance, is considered to be an extremely powerful buff to human-oriented mono white decks.

With only a brief one-week window available to secure a copy of each card (not to mention the steep $50 asking price), the subsequent fallout has been remarkable to behold, to say the least.

In response to a statement from Commander format’s governing body that none of the aforementioned cards would be banned from use, Magic content creator and YouTuber Commander Quarters has started a movement to establish their own format intended to better reflect the wishes of fans. Captain, as it’s so-called, essentially follows existing Commander guidelines verbatim, with one key caveat being the strict banning of all Walking Dead cards.

Whether the movement would have gained any traction or acknowledgment from Wizards, however, we’ll likely never know, as Commander Quarters swiftly shut down a Discord server established to bring fans of Captain together due, they say, to the “toxic environment” it became. As a fan-made format, and one already without the backing of its creator, Captain’s longevity is certainly in question, though the debacle does, at the very least, make Wizards acutely aware of the growing dissatisfaction among many of Magic: The Gathering‘s players.

Will anything change in the future, though? Let us know what you think down below!