Opening booster packs has been an essential part of Magic: The Gathering since the beginning of time. There are two reasons for this. The first is the thrill of discovery. Every player of this game eagerly seeks the rush of opening a fun, beautiful, or powerful card. The second reason is one of the formats for playing Magic: the draft. Each person takes three booster packs, picks one card, and passes the pack to the person on their left. This process is repeated until each pack is finished. The same is done with the next pack, but this time passing to the right. The same is done with the third pack, passing to the left again. Afterward, you take your cards and build a deck with what you’ve got.
Why is draft still popular? Because it’s the great equalizer. It’s not just about playing well; it’s also about building the deck effectively. Knowing the collection you’re playing with is crucial. Very few great Magic players have not been great draft players. And even fewer Magic sets have been forgotten as lackluster draft experiences.
Commander Masters is the new Magic: The Gathering set releasing on August 4th. As the name suggests, it is legal in Commander, an eternal format where all cards are available, except those banned in the format, designed for multiplayer games with three to four players. With prices that have caused some discontent among the community, as they are notably higher than usual, the collection seemed like it could be Wizards’ first misstep in 2023 regarding Magic. But we, who played it at MagicCon, can confidently say that this doesn’t seem likely.
The most interesting aspect of Commander Masters is how balanced and enjoyable it feels for draft play. With many intriguing creatures to choose as our commanders, and the option to have up to two commanders if they are monocolor, the draft of Commander Masters is chaotic, vibrant, and a bit different from the usual. This is influenced by the fact that we draw two cards each turn, and the power level is noticeably higher than regular collections, which is logical for an eternal format.
At the end of the day, those who are here for the thrill of opening cards that make their heart beat a little faster will be overwhelmed with joy. The number of majestic, fun, crazy, or outrageously expensive cards is staggering, making it very difficult not to find at least two or three eye-catching cards in each pack. Sometimes, the entire pack is so appealing that you want to take it all home, which is very uncommon in draft, but it happened to us in one of the matches we played in this Commander Masters format. Even if we didn’t see any high-priced cards in our hands, we definitely spotted them on our opponents’ boards.
As a bonus, the collection has brought unexpected joy to players of a completely different format. Pauper players have plenty to celebrate.
Pauper is an eternal format that has the particularity of only allowing cards of common rarity. Well, in Commander Masters, many cards have changed their rarity, being reduced to common. This makes these cards appear much more frequently, which is done to balance them according to the power level of the draft ecosystem they are in and now they can be played in Pauper. As a result, Pauper format receives a plethora of unexpected inclusions that will undoubtedly completely change the format from now on.
Therefore, while certain economic movements may be bothersome, it demonstrates that everything playable remains perfectly tuned in the world of Magic: The Gathering. Commander Masters is a fun, vibrant, and colorful collection that is enjoyable to play and will likely bring significant changes to at least two formats of the game. If that turns out to be the case, we would have to declare Commander Masters a resounding success.
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