Mystery Booster Commander Edition is the new Magic set designed specifically for Commander Draft, unveiled at Gen Con. Here's everything that has been announced about this new product.
How Commander Draft works
Commander Draft combines Commander's multiplayer play with the deck building of a draft. Each player gets 3 boosters, takes two cards at a time, then builds a deck of at least 60 cards with a commander from their drafted cards.
The recommended setup is 8 players drafting together, then splitting into two games of 4. Unlike regular Commander, you can play more than one copy of a card.
The special color rules
Two rules specific to this product help you play the colors you want, even without the ideal commander.
1. Playing two commanders. A single-color or colorless commander can be paired with another commander of the same kind, as if both had partner. Both commanders start in the command zone.
2. Adding colors. If you drafted a two-color deck with no commander that covers both colors, you can still play it. If your commander has only one of your two colors, you add the other to your deck's color identity. If none of your single-color commanders has either of your two colors, you choose your two colors and play with no commander.
In both cases, you tell the other players which colors you added when commanders are revealed, before the game.
What's in a box and a booster
A box contains 24 boosters, and each booster contains 20 cards, distributed as follows:
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15 common or uncommon cards, 3 of each color (white, blue, black, red and green)
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1 reprint wildcard of any rarity
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1 rare or mythic rare reprinted commander
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1 new commander, non-foil (95.25%) or traditional foil (4.75%)
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1 card from the following:
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a common or uncommon Future Sight frame card, non-foil (43.3%) or traditional foil (2%)
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a rare or mythic rare Future Sight frame card, non-foil (52%) or traditional foil (2.4%)
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a traditional foil acorn stamp card (less than 1%)
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1 playtest card
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The cards
The set includes 60 new cards designed by Gavin Verhey, with new artwork and references to the history of Magic's universe. Each booster contains one of these cards, identified by the MBC set code.
Several of these cards can be your commander even though they aren't creatures. This includes new planeswalkers such as Arzakon, Greensleeves and Worzel, and even a sorcery, Ashaya's Enduring Bond.
In addition to the new cards, the set contains many reprints chosen for Commander Draft. For each one, Wizards used one of its most obscure or unusual past versions. They carry a Planeswalker stamp in the bottom-left corner, which sets them apart from other versions.
Four kinds of cards don't have this stamp: cards printed on paper for the first time, playtest cards, Future Sight frame cards and acorn stamp cards.
Wizards published the complete list of Planeswalker-stamp reprints, along with the original printings they come from.
To see every card, check the official card image gallery.
Rulebreaker
This set introduces a new ability word: rulebreaker. It groups abilities that change deck-building rules when the card is your commander. They apply only before the game begins.
These abilities don't override other deck-building restrictions unless they say so. For example, they don't change the one-copy rule or the 100-card requirement of Constructed Commander.
A few examples:
Seluma, Light of Aysen: your deck can include Angel cards of any color identity. Whtz, the Bibliophile: your deck has no maximum size. Tolabow, Loch Rascal: your instant and sorcery cards can include one color of your choice outside your commander's color identity.
The other rulebreaker commanders are The Everforger, Maular, The Unluckiest Planeswalker and Valko Indorian.
Tolabow's text update
Tolabow, Loch Rascal's printed text was hard to understand and gave unintuitive results. Wizards rewrote it in Oracle to reference color identity explicitly. The card's official text has therefore changed since it was printed.
Conjuring cards
Conjuring cards is a mechanic designed for digital play on MTG Arena. However, it will appear in paper in this new set, on playtest and Alchemy cards.
To play these cards on the tabletop, look up the conjured card's official text in Gatherer and put it in the right zone. At the end of the game, remove all conjured cards from the deck.
Card legality
Not all cards in the set are legal in the same formats.
Reprints: they stay legal in the formats where they were already legal.
60 new cards (numbers 1–60): legal in Commander from November 13, 2026, then in Legacy, Vintage and other Eternal formats from January 1, 2027. They aren't legal in Standard, Pioneer or Modern.
121 playtest cards: legal only in Mystery Booster Limited events.
10 acorn stamp cards (numbers 61–70): legal in Mystery Booster Limited formats, but not in Constructed formats.
Availability
Mystery Booster Commander Edition is available at events like MagicCon and in Festival in a Box, sold on the Secret Lair site. Because quantities are very limited for now, we haven't been able to get it in store.
Sources
Mystery Booster Commander Edition Release Notes, Wizards of the Coast
Mystery Booster Commander Edition Update Bulletin, Wizards of the Coast
List of Planeswalker-stamp reprints, Wizards of the Coast
Mystery Booster product page, Wizards of the Coast
Card image gallery, Wizards of the Coast
