The coronavirus pandemic has affected Magic: The Gathering with organized play suspension a well as product delays. Wizards of the Coast announced another example of the latter. The company has pushed back the release of Commander Collection: Green until December 4th. Commander Collection: Green is part of Wizards of the Coast’s “Year of Commander” offerings. Commander Collection releases are boxes featuring eight reprinted cards for play in the Magic: The Gathering Commander format. The Commander Collection: Green release will be the first of five such releases, one for each of Magic‘s mana colors. The set’s original release date was September 4th.
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Magic: The Gathering has suffered a series of product delays related to the spread of COVID-19. Some other delayed products include Secret Lair: Ultimate Edition, some Core Set 2021 products, and Jumpstart. Wizards had reinstated organized Magic: The Gathering organized play for a time but has since suspended it again at least through the release of Zendikar Rising in September.
Magic: The Gathering‘s Year of Commander began with the Ikoria Commander Decks, released around the debut of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths in Standard. More Commander decks will accompany the release of Zendikar Rising.
Commander will then get a dedicated Magic: The Gathering set, Commander Legends, for Draft play. Commander Legends includes more than seventy new legends to use as commanders, distributed in twenty-card packs, with a foil card and two legendary creatures in each pack. Two new commander decks will accompany the release of Commander Legends.
Wizards of the Coast sees that Commander is becoming a popular way to play and even learn Magic: The Gathering. While Commander is not a format available on Magic: The Gathering Arena, the Brawl format — which uses the same rules but with smaller decks restricted to Standard-legal cards — has proven popular enough to go from a weekly event to a full-time play mode. Historic Brawl has also proven popular but remains an occasional event for now.
While Commander Collection: Green won’t release until December, July did see the release of the new Jumpstart start, which represents a brand new Magic: The Gathering format. For those still unable to play Magic: The Gathering in stores, Jumpstart is also available on Magic: The Gathering Arena and its cards are legal for Historic play. Magic: The Gathering Arena will continue to host Jumpstart events through August 16th.
Are you looking forward to the new Commander releases? Let us know in the comments.
