Commander Format History

Commander (formerly known as Elder Dragon Highlander or EDH) has an interesting history that evolved from a casual player-created format to one of Magic: The Gathering's most popular formats today.

Origins

The Commander format was created in the late 1990s by judges in Alaska who were looking for a new way to play between tournament rounds. The format was originally called "Elder Dragon Highlander" (EDH) because:

Players were required to use one of the five Elder Dragons from Legends as their general (later called commander)
The "Highlander" part referenced the 1986 film and its tagline "There can be only one," signifying the singleton nature of the format

Evolution of the Format

Time Period	Development
Late 1990s	Format created by Alaska judges
Early 2000s	Spread through judge community and casual players
2005-2010	Growing online presence and popularity
2011	Wizards of the Coast officially recognized the format and released the first Commander preconstructed decks
2011+	Annual commander products and growing mainstream popularity
Present	One of Magic's most popular formats with dedicated products

Rules Committee

The Commander format is officially governed by the Commander Rules Committee (RC), an independent group that:

Maintains the format's rules and banned list
Makes decisions about format changes
Promotes the philosophy of Commander as a social, multiplayer format

The Rules Committee maintains that Commander should remain primarily a social format that emphasizes fun, memorable gameplay over competition.

Implementation in Rummage

In Rummage, we've faithfully implemented the Commander format according to the official rules while maintaining the flexibility to adapt to future changes. Our implementation:

Follows the current Commander rules
Includes historical context in design decisions
Allows for easy adaptation to rule changes

References