Magic: The Gathering’s Year of the Commander is rushing towards its exciting conclusion with the release of two new products. Commander collection Green will provide anyone with a selection of essential green cards that will fill out any Commander deck that makes use of the verdant color, while Commander Legends will be the format’s first ever dedicated expansion. It’ll also include both booster and draft packs so that you’ll finally be able to play a game of Commander draft.
To help convince affiliated game stores to play into Commander’s popularity, Wizards of the Coast has released a few interesting tidbits about what was once a casual format.
Commander got started way back in the mid-2000s as Elder Dragon Highlander, and at first, Wizards of the Coast didn’t pay it much attention. But as the format’s popularity grew, Wizards jumped on board and gave it a slightly better name and official rules.
By the time 2018 rolled around, around 9,000 people were playing Commander in Wizards Play Network-affiliated stores every week. By February 2020, that number had tripled to 28,000. Of course, then COVID-19 hit and that number has plummeted, but WPN stores don’t really need the bad news right now.
Another interesting side effect of hosting Commander events in stores: more ticket sales. WPN stores that hosted Commander events sold 14% more tickets not because they were hosting more events, but because they were hosting events that players wanted to attend.
WPN Premium Stores hosted 61 Commander Events over the past year, which totals to more than one Commander event per week. There’s even a global league of Commander players with Wizards currently signing up stores to host their own Commander Nights for the upcoming Zendikar Rising expansion (which is technically already out on Magic Arena).
The moral of the story: everyone loves Commander, and you should too. Don’t know where to get started? These low-mana-cost Commanders are great for beginners.
Source: Wizards of the Coast
