Can You Play Commander on MTG Arena?

Commander is one of the most popular Magic: The Gathering formats, presenting a radically different kind of game than the traditional one-on-one duels provided by formats like Standard and Pioneer, which have unique metas and ban lists to regulate them. Here are the details on Commander's availability on MTG Arena.

Commander is a format in MTG that has players construct unique 100-card decks, limited to a single copy of each non-Basic land card. These decks are headed by a Legendary Creature that acts as the deck's Commander and dictates what colors may be used in the deck. Frequently Commander is played with more than two players, unlike other formats in Magic.

Can You Play Commander on MTG Arena?

Unfortunately, Commander is not supported on MTG Arena. However, players can experience a similar style of gameplay by playing Brawl, which was introduced on Arena.

Like Commander, Brawl decks feature Commanders, though Brawl allows Planeswalkers to be Commanders. Furthermore, Brawl decks are only 60 cards, though they do include the one-copy rule of Commander. Brawl is also only played between two players on Arena, and rotates with Standard, unlike Commander.

Brawl is a unique experience that offers much of the fun of Commander without the need to play with multiple players (which also drastically increases the playing time of games). Brawl's one-copy rule also limits the ability of players to put all the most overpowered cards in their decks by color, resulting in some unusual inclusions that would otherwise not make it in Standard.