Did you know that Commander was, at one time, a last-second backup plan for Wizards of the Coast?
Back in 2010, Wizards released a series of preconstructed decks for the Commander format (then commonly known as "EDH" or "Elder Dragon Highlander). The decks, though, weren't the company's "Plan A." In fact, they were a last-ditch effort to get a new SKU on the market after cancelling the project they were planning on releasing.
In short, the product was a pure experiment that worked out rather well in the long run.
"We didn't know what we were doing," tells Gavin Verhey, Principal Designer for Magic: The Gathering. "No one knew what we were doing."
In fact, the company thought the product would be a one-off. The initial plan was for it to be a stop-gap product that would be replaced by something the company actually wanted to do the following year.
WATCH: GAVIN VERHEY TALKS ABOUT COMMANDER'S ORIGIN
Of course, that's not exactly what happened. And, as Commander has gotten more and more popular over the years, Wizards has gotten better at creating preconstructed decks for the format.
"We now have pretty good characteristics of what people like, what themes people like, what kind of cards work, and we're able to build decks that are much better engines," says Verhey, explaining on how mana bases have gotten better over the years, as have the card selections for preconstructed decks.
As such, Commander decks have become one of Magic's most popular products with even the oldest of decks still selling at local game stores and online.
