Spoiler season is here, bringing both a new Standard set and a new batch of Commander precons. And as we do whenever new cards are revealed, we again find ourselves debating the "spirit of Commander".

I pose a simple question: What is the spirit of Commander?

Before I give my answer, I'd like you to look at this deck. It's a labor of love by my good friend Jim from The Spike Feeders and has come to be known as Bears in Cars.

Bears in Cars | Commander | Jim

• Commanders (2)
• 1 Silas Renn, Seeker Adept
• 1 Tymna the Weaver

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Alms Collector
• 1 Aven Mindcensor
• 1 Containment Priest
• 1 Dark Confidant
• 1 Grand Abolisher
• 1 Leonin Arbiter
• 1 Notion Thief
• 1 Pain Seer
• 1 Recruiter of the Guard
• 1 Sanctum Prelate
• 1 Serra Ascendant
• 1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Etherium Sculptor
• 1 Ethersworn Canonist
• 1 Lodestone Golem
• 1 Master Transmuter
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
• 1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Ashiok, Dream Render
• 1 Narset, Parter of Veils

• Instants (11)
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Chain of Vapor
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Delay
• 1 Dovin's Veto
• 1 Enlightened Tutor
• 1 Mana Drain
• 1 Narset's Reversal
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Vampiric Tutor

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Timetwister
• 1 Transmute Artifact

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Back to Basics
• 1 Mystic Remora
• 1 Rest in Peace
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Verity Circle

• Artifacts (22)
• 1 Azorius Signet
• 1 Chalice of the Void
• 1 Cultivator's Caravan
• 1 Cursed Totem
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Heart of Kiran
• 1 Helm of Obedience
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Mox Diamond
• 1 Mox Opal
• 1 Peacewalker Colossus
• 1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• 1 Smuggler's Copter
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sphere of Resistance
• 1 Talisman of Dominance
• 1 Talisman of Progress
• 1 Thorn of Amethyst
• 1 Untethered Express
• 1 Weatherlight

• Lands (30)
• 1 Swamp
• 7 Island
• 8 Plains
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 1 Scrubland
• 1 Tundra
• 1 Underground Sea
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Windswept Heath

Buy This Deck Export text format

I'm willing to wager a significant portion of those reading this article will have some degree of negative reaction to that deck. It's filled with hatebears (hence "Bears") and some vehicles (hence "in Cars"). It's designed to not let your opponents do the things they typically want to do in a game of Commander. Some would describe it as a Stax deck.

I've heard it said far more than once that Stax and Stax-like decks go against the "spirit of Commander". I know that because I said it more than once.

I was wrong. So, so wrong.

The Biggest of Tents

The spirit of Commander is that there is room for everyone. Whether you have the resources to build a $5,000 fully foiled powerhouse or you've been playing the same precon for years without a single upgrade, you have a place in this format. Jim and his friends at The Spike Feeders have enormous amounts of fun playing high-powered decks like Bears in Cars, Flash Hulk and the like. That's not the way I tend to play, but I support unequivocally the rights of every player to be able to play the way they enjoy most. That has been the format's mission all along and has never been truer than it is right now. Commander is for everyone.

Invariably, however, new cards and products and mechanics lead to discussions about what Commander should be. We've only just seen all of the Commander 2020 cards and already these discussions have bubbled up, centered mainly on two things: Lutri, the Spellchaser and the new cycle of spells that can be cast for free if you control your commander.

Let's dispense with Lutri first. The Commander Rules Committee announced, within moments of Lutri's reveal, that the card is banned. I am firmly among those who believe it was a good decision. Every now and again Wizards introduces new mechanics and/or prints cards with abilities that simply do not function the same way in Commander as they do in other formats.

Most of the Companion cards we've seen don't break Commander, despite introducing a 101st card and the existential questions that introduces; is it really still Commander if the decks aren't 100 cards? (Yes, I believe it is, because Commander is a singleton format but cards like Persistent Petitioners exist.) Lutri, however, wouldn't just break the format, it would bust it wide open. The deck-building restriction is irrelevant, and having a Fork on a stick with flash available to you at any time is bonkers.

You might expect that I'd also be fiercely opposed to Fierce Guardianship. I am not.

I do have issues with the card and what it represents - namely, that the "Year of Commander" seems destined to accelerate power creep and reduce the diversity and individuality upon which Commander was built. I've spoken at length about that on my own blog and this cycle does nothing to ease those concerns.

But what concerns me even more is the tendency for players to make value judgments about each other based on the kinds of cards and decks they play. Let me be very clear: Playing with powerful or ubiquitous cards does not make someone a bad person, nor does that violate the spirit of Commander. In my opinion if, and only if, you intentionally misrepresent the power level of your deck in order to deceive your opponents and win a game ("pubstomping") would you be violating the spirit of Commander.

More Alike than Different

That's because the spirit of Commander boils down to this: We all get to have fun in whatever way we want. We all have that in common and so there is much more that unites us than divides us. We all build and play our decks, to at least some degree, as a way of expressing ourselves. We know that we could give the very same decklist to 100 different players in 100 different Commander pods and have 100 different results. That's the spirit of Commander.

Some of us play to win. There's nothing wrong with that. Some of us play to tell a story or to create chaos or simply to enjoy the company of others. Nothing is wrong with any of that; in fact, that's precisely what's great about the format. The spirit of Commander is ensuring that the format remains a way for players of all kinds to have fun with each other.

No one card could ever destroy the spirit of Commander. Lutri, despite its glaring issues in this format - so glaring that Wizards itself preemptively banned the card in Brawl - wouldn't do it. Nor do Fierce Guardianship, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet or any other card. Sure, there's room for worry about whether the format is trending in a troubling direction with regard to power creep. I share it. I don't want to see Commander become a format in which everyone feels a need to play in a very specific way with very specific cards. But I also don't truly believe there's any imminent danger of that happening. Power creep is a thing, absolutely, as is a trend toward samey-ness. But at this moment I do not believe Commander is under existential siege.

Not as long as I have anything to say about it - because I do. I have everything to say about it. And so do you.

We Have the Power

Commander is and has always been a player-driven format. Rule 0 merely codifies the practical reality that this format, and each unique experience we create within it, is up to us. Wizards can print all the cards it wants, but only we decide how much they matter. Remember people screaming that As Foretold would break the format? I do. Remember the hype over Growing Rites of Itlimoc and Storm the Vault, and how everyone was gonna have access to Gaea's Cradle and Tolarian Academy now and they'd be so overpowered? I do. Remember how K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth was just so busted and there would never be a reason to ever run any other Mono-Black commander ever again? I sure do.

We do this every time, every Standard set and every Commander-focused product and everything in between. It's in our nature as humans, especially because many of us love this format. We're protective of that which we love. We don't want to see it warped or broken and we really don't ever want to see it destroyed. It's natural to experience these feelings of alarm when powerful new things appear.

Thing is, though, we seem to have these panic attacks 20 or 30 times a year and yet Commander endures. The format has not been destroyed; indeed, it's growing every day. Cards and decks and strategies come and go and we keep shuffling up and sitting down together. We continue to have fun with the cards and with each other, and we'll keep doing that as long as there are cards to play and people to play with. Jim will keep putting his bears in cars, I'll keep making decks based on how much of a dreamboat the commander is, and we'll all keep having fun.

That is the true spirit of Commander. And I truly believe the format will survive and thrive as long as we, the players, keep stepping up. We'll keep getting cards and products and bans and unbans that some love and others hate. We'll keep arguing (hopefully constructively) amongst ourselves and freaking out over things that may or may not turn out to have been nothing.

All that is fine by me as long as we all keep playing with each other. That's the responsibility and the power we have. No one card, product or decision will kill this format. The only thing that would ever destroy Commander would be if we all stop playing it. I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Not as long as you and I have anything to say about it.