Will Commander Come to MTG Arena? Should It? | Commander's 2 Cents Uncut | MTG| Magic: the Gathering 

I haven't played MTG Arena in a long time 😅 but I would go back if they did Commander in arena. It is a longer game time but I'd want to play with my friends.

If Arena can pull off having Commander like it is played in real life, that would be awesome. Historic Brawl is close enough but not the same. Messaging would also need to be added to help with the social aspect of Commander

It's getting there man. I jumped on to try historic brawl this week and was blown away by all the older cards they have available for use.

If they really wanted to make a absolute colossal amount of money, they should definitely consider adding commander. It’s one of the most popular formats, and it would get me personally to play arena. I don’t really have an interest in standard

I think making a seperate client for commander would be the best and smartest way to go, Magic Arena : Commander. With it still being connected in some ways to the other client, friends you have in one client you have in both and such. Having these be seperate would allow for so many things you might not otherwise be able to do, and how you would go about doing things for a commander client wouldn't be hampered by how the current client is.

As someone who doesn't have friends to play anything with (especially Commander), having the format come to Arena would be a beneficial addition. Logistically, it could be a nightmare and I have every doubt that they would ever implement it given the way things are.

So I’m not sure if you know this or not but the closest we can get to commander on MTG Arena is by playing “Historic Brawl”. Yes it’s still 1v1 but it opens up to some of the older cards in mtg history as well as it being 100 card singleton format. If I’m really craving a commander match and can’t meet up at an LGS or with my normal playgroup this usually satisfies my itch

Commander in arena just makes sense, it’s insane they haven’t yet it’s not like wizards to leave money on the table like that. Enjoying the awesome commentary!

Adding two more people to arena would be weird because when someone has a large board state on arena the permanents get smaller so the pov would have to be looked at because how would you interact with the other 2 that aren't across from you.

With like 20,000 unique cars in the format, it would probably benefit from its own client that’s just commander arena. And with alllllll the different possible interactions that would have to be implemented, it could be a years long project to fully realize. That being said, it would be awesome to have that quality of an online commander format

I figure it'll happen eventually, and I kinda look forward to it. When it comes to the card pool, I imagine that it could be done bit by bit on a monthly basis(though I could absolutely see WOTC charging a subscription fee for it). Even if it was just 1v1, I'd probably at least try to play regularly, as it would be better than hardly ever(or never) getting to play.

I’ve been playing strictly Historic Brawl for quite some time. It’s obviously the most commander “like” format on there and while you don’t have access to as many cards, you can still create a lot of fun interactions. I actually applaud it for that, I’m not going to see the same staples every game I play and it adds to the fun of brewing. Making a deck function without using the rhystic studies, mana crypts, and dockside’s. I’d really just ask for it to become 4 player and I think it’d be a solid format that continuously grows from here.

Commander's 2 Cents Uncut seems fine, easiest way to differentiate from normal videos

QOTD: "Always Making to Look improvements" - I love your channel! Keep up the good work!

My favorite part of mtga is the fact that it's good for people who want to play awesome cards that cost a shit ton without breaking the bank, like i basically got Ulamog, the Ceaseless hunger for free just for opening packs from coins earned from quests due to the wildcard system

I really like these. Best thing to listen to while driving to and from work.

Always appreciate the videos dude!

Another VERY important part to take into account is the processing needed for a 4player game of commander to happen in MTG Arena. There are already infinite combos that break arena relatively quickly. There are combos that aren't infinite that severely lag the game. Those are in a 1v1 game, in a 4 player game it would make the processing of this very difficult and the costs to fix this, if they could reasonably fix it. Would cost more money that Wizards of the Coast would likely be able to justify given their budget vs profit margins in MTG Arena.

I just checked Scryfall for every card on arena that is legal in commander (this includes cards for explorer but not the digital only cards) and it said 7,206 cards. Which isn’t great but also it’s 7 times what’s legal in only Brawl (btw brawl is standard only cards Historic brawl is probably what you were looking for)

Arena is worlds better than WOTC's previous digital attempts, but still has a lot of work to be done. Would be great to see the team get 4-player commander/brawl going!

I think they should. I love when my playgroup can get together to play IRL. But if they can add Commander and we just Discord: more games more fun. Especially when everyone is adulting and moving further away from each other.

I would definitely play commander online with friends. No digital only cards though

There's 0% chance mtga will get commander in it's current state... if you have ever played goblins against life gain you will understand why the game chugs if you get more than 20 triggers

“I’m always making to look improvements” 👏 👏 well said Mitch 💪👌👍

I'd like to try it on arena but most likely with friends so we can coordinate decks and chat on discord or such. Playing against random people that rope and disconnect and so on and no way of communication feels way less desirable.

I don't think the current interface could support Multi-Player. As it is, the "timer" system in Arena makes it virtually impossible to play Combo. There would need to be MAJOR changes in the engine structure to be able to play properly. i.e. 4 players passing/holding priority, in order, for everything that pops up on the stack.

I left when alchemy was added to arena but I definitely be back for commander as long as there was no alchemy and some sort of smart auto queue separation between different power level decks.

There’s is a crafting aspect where you use wildcards to make cards Mitch. One thing to think about is players that only want to play Commander would just need to get 1 copy of any cards they need. So instead of using 4 wildcards to make a play set of mythic/rares they’d just use 1 and spend the other 3 on other cards. In paper you’d need to pull out your single copy of doubling season and put it back in a different deck if you have one copy. So there would be less incentive for people to crack packs or craft for usually a full playset. There would be a lot of crafting up front to get staples, but then a large slowdown unless people need cards from new sets to switch in.

My brother got me into magic commander and I got my 1st paper pre-made commander deck sefris of the hidden ways commander of the dungeons & dragons adventures in the forgotten realms. Then I found mtg arena and loved it as well with all the free cards you get. You get a free deck of every color just for playing the tutorial. I then used those to make other decks. The more you play you earn different wild cards that you can trade for any other card you want with mythic being rare and what you trade for commanders or other high profile cards. After 3 months I have like 20-30 decks and 10 historic brawl decks I've made for FREE. So I love it but... I want to play commander to have the multiple player aspect which is the biggest thing missing. I feel like they're missing an opportunity to give us commander mode just because they don't have all the cards on there yet. They could give us limited commander using the cards they have on there and keep adding new ones as they go. Just imagine too in the future when you buy a commander pre built deck new you get the digital version of those cards free on there to play online with. It would incentives buying paper decks to play with friends irl but also online with strangers to make new friends while laying in bed playing at night lol. A lot of things they could do but we need some type of multi player commander on there even if it's limited at first.

I've thought a lot about this subject, I'll try to describe them in as few words as possible: *TLDR:* Commander will most likely be added to Arena (which will likely take at least a year unless already in development), but it won't live up to the IRL experience A recent survey actually asked players whether or not they'd like to see "multiplayer" in Arena, as in 4 player free for all, and what formats they'd like to see. Commander was an option, as well as features such as text/voice chat, and open friend requests. I think Commander will be playable at some point, but there are fundamental errors in the way the game sees some interactions (e.g. Stonecoil Serpent, an X cost, was countered by a spell that could only counter cmc 4+, there's also the Ashaya vs Sludge Monster glitch that's known issue). The main issue here is the amount of development time it would take to iron out all of the existing rules conflicts, plus the addition of possible conflicts with multiple players... not to mention the slowdown and crashing when too many triggers are on the stack. As far as economy is concerned, I don't have much input, as I've been playing almost daily for years now, so I have 60-70% of the cards in the game without spending any money, that being said, there are a lot of cards I'd like to see in the game that I consider Commander staples (Fractured Identity, Sol Ring, even some extra scummy combo pieces). Mitch makes some great points here as to the social aspects of the game, no matter how Commander would be implemented, there will certainly be benefits to playing in person, and drawbacks to playing on Arena.

I feel like after another year or so adding commander but not going into backlog of cards could be interesting so you don't see all the same combinations and broken setups could be interesting because allowing all cards and easy access to them means most people in random play will just look up and build the most degen decks so limiting the pool a bit more can help with that (or hurt equally possibly.

Not topic related, but format related: Commanders 2 Cents is good on its own, if you wanna go with Uncut that works as well since it makes sense for the type of video it is. Otherwise if you wanna go flavourful.. Unminted? Unrolled (like, from a roll of pennies/quarters)?

I would love for them to atleast bring all the commander cards to Arena. I would be fine if they add yet another "format" like brawl to Arena and say, "Right this is Comander Brawl. Its not Comander, but its better than nothing." I was massively excited for the Mur'kul, Lord of Bones and had a deck list ready to go, only for it to never come to Arena. Great content as always.

I guess in theory they could do commander on Arena. I have to say though: there's a huge number of cards that would need to be added to the game before they even get close. That's 5-10 years of back-releasing sets right there. (& I reckon I might have been a bit optimistic in that estimation.) They could take an abridged route, & source deckstats from edhrec so that they print 99% of all the most commonly used cards in Commander. That would chop in half the number of cards they'd need to work through, but then again you wouldn't enjoy the same freedom to construct that you'd enjoy in paper commander. Either way, it's still years of work to get anywhere near the actual card pool for commander. & honestly; given the time & work involved it's probably not cost effective for them to do. The other elephant in the room (arena only does 1v1) is probably not actually that bad. Compared to fixing the card pool, patching arena to handle a 4 player game should be trivial.* Tldr: they "could" do it. But it's a monumental amount of work, & I don't think it makes financial sense for them. *Obviously I don't know the internal workings of MTGA, so this is assumption on my part.

Historic Brawl is the format you should have looked up on scryfall. It is going to have the Alchemy cards, but would be the closer number to of cards on arena.

I am actually surprised it hasn't happened yet. I know multiplayer support have been on many people's wishlist for a long time. Not just for commander but for other multiplayer formats as well.

A better pay option for wild cards would be a wonderful option to get decks you want. Right now it's stupid expensive to buy rare and mythic rare wild cards. I wish we had better options.

I mean that’s basically what historic brawl is. I think that’s the closest we’ll actually get to it.

They’ve always teased us, because despite there not being any play except 1v1, you still have to target your opponent.

I feel like them adding commander to arena would also need to herald more then 1v1, I’d like to build some of the commander precons that are released in sets into arena

If they brought Commander to the Game, I would play it

I love that this video is Mitch coming up with a premise and listing all the reason why the premise isn’t going to happen. 😂😂😂

I don’t think they should add EDH to Arena. It’d be such a headache incorporating all the cards and it would lose the social, in-person aspect of it like you said.

my biggest complain is the 100 deck limit. with all the cards coming out and all the different firmats I could easily make a 1,000 decks.

I'm basing this on the title alone. Arena kind of already has Commander on the client. It's called the historic brawl. Which yes brawl but it uses every card on arena is hundred card Singleton and you have a legendary creature or Planeswalker, but many people in the commander community think that you should be able to run walkers as your commanders anyways. Will edit at end if thoughts have changed.

I doubt they’ll ever add commander since they won’t edit the mtg arena client to allow for more than 2 players. They make it sound like it’s a monumental task whenever it’s brought up. Even though it’s a hot take, I like playing “historic” Brawl on mtg arena so I can use cards all the way back to amonkhet. And those decks play differently than commander. Like I was able to make this mono-white vampire ‘Mavren Fein’ brawl deck with mostly ixalan cards. I love that deck because it makes for quick and fun gameplay. Brawl is a nice change of pace from commander.

It's halfway there with brawl just 40 more cards and don't have the set restriction that brawl has. Or if they just remove the set restriction from brawl and turn brawl into just 60 card commander.

The problem MTG Arena has is that it requires you to first "get" the card in their system to make the decks. Which means I would have to first buy the cards in the game to be able to even play the decks. Although i have heard (I admit i havent played in a few years) that in Historic, the cards you use are already unlocked? I dont know if this is true, but if it is, then yes, there is a way for them to make the format viable in their system. They could make it so that you can make decks for commander, and you would have all the cards unlocked FOR that format alone, while keeping their current setup for their standard format. A subscription for commander which unlocks all cards would also not be that bad of a thing imo. As long as its not too expensive (I would say no more than 10-15 a month) they could make some serius bank while allowing players to be able to play as much as they want.

I think it can happen in a massive way but also respect what came before . Mtg is big and it can get far bigger. Wizerds needs to make a far better system then mtg arena though and build a 4 or 5 player online system using the avatar system but as your commander instead and have virtual avatar with voice chat system . Gaming is 10000billion times bigger and it would push it to far more people and it would be a massive win for the entire community and for the company

I have touch arena since it came out i just wasn't doing the grind cuz I have a little amount of cards as much as I WOULD like commander to come to arena but I just don't have a good time on arena

I agree with you completely. The face to face aspect of commander is why I play it. If that was taken away, it would not be nearly as enjoyable to play

The Chat and friends list would need an overhaul first. Then, they would need to work in a way to play with more than two people.

It should, I want to play it... A lot

I would like a 4 player mode with chat options to toggle off and on.

wait I thought it already was, I could have sworn I saw a friend playing commander a couple months ago.

More cards ? Easy ! You need an KI or more people for programs

I don't think you will ever be able to politic on arena. They have too many safeguards in place for chat to make sure there's no obscenities or profanities. Also, they are at least 18,000 cards shy of having the full list of playable EDH cards, so I don't think it will ever happen

I like Arena, I just wish they had some sort of cross reward system where you could redeem paper packs for digital packs. Something like a QR code they’ll give you a digital booster, or a wildcard or something like that. I’m also not naive enough to think that this would actually happen.

This comment got a little lengthy... So I have separated it into the different key Points that you covered in your video. Social: Have people agree to new TOS saying that they won't hold Wizards liable. and of course have a STRONG report system in place for improper use. but then give us voice chat (i'd say for that format only, but it would also be nice to have in the others too). Just like on any other online game that has open chats, yes there will be people who abuse it in one way or another. but then they get reported and muted, or banned. that takes care of the social side of things IMO; not as great as sitting with friends playing, but a helluva lot more convenient. Card base: They definitely COULD do it. They'd probably end up charging, as you said. and it would ONLY be available to the Commander format. This would be the biggest hurdle for Wizards as they would have to come up with and program in all of the Animations and such for the older cards. Economy: They would have to make a way for wildcards to be purchasable, and again probably restrict that to Commander only. Currently, besides the Rare and Mythic wildcard packs that are available as i'm typing this, the only way to get wildcards is to open x number of packs or get the wildcard as a pull in the pack. They make them available for Purchase through the Gem/coin options already available in-game and you will have solved, and in my mind improved, the economy issue. Think of it this way: right now, only "money" players can own some of the more (ridiculously) expensive cards. Why is that? there are a finite number of those cards printed and supply and demand come into play to control the market price of a card. So people who can't afford to pay $100+ for a single card are restricted to second or third tier options. In Arena, that wouldn't be an issue. Yes, it would quickly become "Pay to win" because people willing to spend money on gems to get the wildcards would of course have better collections; but that happens already and isn't the point of this comment. And this would make Wizards more money because (unless I'm missing something on the resale market) they don't make a penny on the resale market. This would be a way for them to add revenue from their BIGGEST, yet I dare say least profitable, format. There are a ton of other options/reasons that this would be a HUGELY profitable option for Wizards; but again, not the point of this comment. 1v1-4 Player UI Changes: i don't know that this is as difficult as we are imagining. they already have the programing for different areas; for example graveyard, exile, deck. and they have the ability to click on a card for more info. What I would do is have Your board on the bottom half and then split the top half into three, which you can click one to focus on. For interactions between other players have the top go to the two interacting and have the cards interacting be in the foreground to show the interactions. It could get a little messy when a "wide" deck goes to attack EVERYONE but it gets messy in paper magic too haha. If anything this would be a bit easier to follow because of the arrows. They would definitely need to tweak the timers in the game to give people to take a look at the board state and make an informed decision. As for people going AFK? That definitely happens on real tables too. I don't know the amount of times that someone has gotten up to go to the bathroom or other such and we've had to wait for them to come back because we were attacking them or some other such (i'm guilty of it too). So you put a skip option in for AFK or something like "Unless directly impacted" so that it skips their priority automatically unless they are attacked, targeted or there is some sort of board wipe. At that point the normal timer would come into play.

Too bad not every card in the game is serial numbered as that would help the paywall thing so every unique card could be uploaded to arena and unlocked with their serial code

Commander with all the cards is impossible to happen in a few years, since it'll take longer than that to get Pioneer on Arena at the rate they're going

I would play if they brought it over. My concern is they would put a monthly fee on EDH play or do rotations to keep people paying

edh on arena wouldnt need all the cards just a large pool. All the cards that have already been place on arena, that arently currently usable due to rotation is huge. It would need a new name format as it wouldnt have all the older cards but it would be fine with the current database

imo legend of runeterra is the best free to play online card playing game format when it comes to buying cards

I would play commander in Arena if they did add it but I think its like playing Dnd online vs in person. The feel will be different either way

If Mtg arena gets 3 player commander, I’m all in.

They need commander at this point wizards hasn’t been doing good in it’s PR and to add the disaster which is Aftermath so this could be a good bounce back for the community

The amount of coding would just be too insane, soooo many bugs

Sorta surprised untapped didnt come up as a way to play commander online

To be fair Historic Brawl on Arena has over 7,500 cards

As soon as they figure out the optimal way to extract as much money as possible out of it, yes, it will 100% come to arena.

If they just add multi player to historic brawl and not needing to add all the other cards I would be 100% fine

I hope Commander comes to Arena. It's the only format I like to play

They seem to be slowly working toward having all of Modern available, once that's done we can start calling for classic cards to appear. The bigger issues are definitely communication and multi-player, neither of which are easy to implement.

It doesn't have to be commander. 4 player brawl would bring me back to Arena

I think Historic Brawl should be 4 players. But they should have built it from the start. If Arena didn't had a mobile client then Arena could have easily done 4 players. Plus 4 players formats like two headed giant be able to be played.

How am I gonna git my OG duals into arena?!?

Name Idea: Mitch's Musings

Still digging the uncut unscripted versions. Shame to hear you don’t think commander will be coming, but it’s understandable

Hell they can't even fix brawl where I can play a friend.

I don't think the client could even handle commander, I'd rather they not even try

I kinda like the idea of MTG being seperate from the internet and computer platforms just to keep us away from all these devices.

Is there some unwritten rule that nobody talks about being able to use OBS/Spelltable & Moxfield test play as a way to play Commander for free online with friends (obviously WOC would not like this to be common)

It should 1000% be in Arena

I actually think arena commander would actually end the age of command. Commander would still be around, but putting it on arena would make a downturn in its popularity. You are having fun with your buds playing commander, fair, fun. But think about how commander would actually happen on arena. You have a lot longer between your turns. You aren't chatting with people. There is no rule 0. You don't know the people and you can bet they are going to be playing as close to CEDH as possible because they want to win. I think arena commander would show people the worst of commander rather than the best of it.

Mitch I prefer this style of content a LOT more than your clickbaity deck techs

If commander went to Arena I'd probably never get to play paper with my friends again because they'd default to the easier method of mechanically interacting with Magic, and I would likely sell off my collection and slowly quit playing Magic as a result because digital is never the same for me as being in person.

Scryfall search: "game:arena legal:commander" for all Commander legal cards on Arena, 7,206 cards. And the 24,148 Commander legal cards total, so 16,942 cards difference.

Better question, would it matter? Would it bypass the ungodly amount of resentment that players have for the game and Hasbro? For me personally the answer is no.

Oh my god, Mitch, what a boomer! Imagine wanting to sit with OTHER PEOPLE, play some mtg and have interactions with people! hahaha I am 100% kidding, although, I did really want to be able to play EDH on arena, I actually changed my mind. I think, aside form the headache it would require to program, something would be lost by not playing in person. If there was a way for WotC to have a discord type thing where you use YOUR cards and deal with all the interactions, I would be ok with that, but in-person commander is probably still better.

Love these videos. I would love to see commander come to arena.

A big problem is that Arena is a mobile game. DH on a phone screen? Sounds like a nightmare. Also lag with 4 players.

Look all im saying is, make a friendly game mode: 4 way 100 card historic brawl! Thats all!

Will it? Possibly. Should it? Definitely not. Why? Because Commander online wouldn't work very well without the ability to chat freely with the other players, but adding freeform chat to Arena would be a nightmare. With online anonymity replacing face-to-face social contact (even if the faces are remote from each other), all of the politicking and banter that makes Commander what it is would be replaced by "emotes" and roping. No thanks.

Historic Brawl is all I play on Arena

Hey Mitch, really like this new format! Couple of areas of improvement: I personally think it would be beneficial to have minor cuts at times, so that if you do get off-topic or rambley, forget words, thoughts, etc, that way you can make simple cuts/edits to keep things more on track. PleasantKenobi does that for his videos and it's not distracting and helps the video be more focused. Other pieces would be to try and cut back on filler words. I know that's tough cuz I'm also from the midwest but the "ya knows", "whatnot", etc. can get distracting/make the points you are making seem more disjointed and less coherent. My 2 cents on your 2 cents, but I have always enjoyed listening to your input on all things MTG!

Currently you have historic brawl which has one of the stupidest ban lists mixed with the alchemy cards for arena. Ex: Demonic tutor is banned but paradox engine is unbanned. Even if they added all the cards from magic's history for a commander format and it's own ban list that reflects current commander's ban list it still wouldn't work. Essentially you would be rebuilding all of arena from the ground up to work with one format in the style it currently is in essentially being online 2.

I don’t know how it would considering that would mean they’d have to add every card ever for free to arena. Unless it’s going to be some kinda pay to play kinda shit I doubt it will. Also since WOTC partnered will spell table i doubt they will bring commander to arena.

There's a big difference between quarters and two cents

In a conversation about whether EDH capability could or should be added to Arena, you have to consider that MTGO and Arena are fundamentally different; Paper Magic and MTGO are *trading card* games, whereas Arena is a *collectible card* game. Without a secondary market or the ability to trade cards between players, EDH on Arena would very quickly become dominated by those few players willing and able to spend piles of money obtaining powerful cards and everyone else would quickly lose interest in a 'money wins' game. This is largely the reality in the formats already on Arena, and is the main reason I no longer play it. I simply got tired of having to dump tons of money into every newly released set just to keep from getting steamrolled every game - it's just not fun anymore. Lack of ability to trade isn't just a massive downside for EDH on Arena, it's a deal-breaker. Unless WotC gave up sole control of the economy on Arena by allowing trading, EDH would not work on Arena. Since MTGO already has multiplayer EDH, it makes more sense that better graphics could be built on top of the existing code, but as Mitch pointed out, WotC and Hasbro have no incentive to pull attention away from a game where they control the entire market.