Calling all Commander Fans – Commander Backlog Update

Posted on Dec 10, 2024

By Tony Mayer 

Magic Online’s Cardset engineers have been hard at work all year coding hundreds of cards for the most recent sets. We produced an astounding NINE card sets that released in the last twelve months with some being far more difficult than others:

• Ravnica Remastered
• Murders at Karlov Manor
• Outlaws of Thunder Junction (with its The Big Score subset)
• Modern Horizons 3
• Assassin’s Creed®
• Bloomburrow
• Duskmourn: House of Horrors
• Fallout®
• Foundations

The team was finally able to catch its collective breath a couple months ago. After a week of getting to explore whatever coding projects they desired, we asked them to dive deep into the Commander Backlog.

How Did the Backlog Begin?

There was a period earlier this decade where cards for main sets affecting Standard, Modern, and other competitive formats were prioritized to be created over cards from their respective Commander sets. In all, the Backlog topped out at around 340 cards – counting those that are in Commander decks, specifically. (We know there’s other products floating out there that are beyond that scope – Battle for Baldur’s Gate main set, CLUE: Ravnica Edition, Jumpstart 2022, Commander cards from Set Boosters, and a couple others)

Why Did We Do This Now?

We know how frustrating it is for existing Magic fans, particularly those who hear about MTGO being the digital home of Commander, to learn that their Commander or their deck can’t be made online. Lots of players want to translate their paper experience to the digital realm, and if we can only meet them part of the way, it means those players won’t keep trying Magic Online.

As our team has grown over the past eighteen months, we’ve been able to code Backlog cards that were essentially free to us – when a new card was created for Standard, cards that had similar mechanics could be picked up. We’ve tracked these in Blogs and set release articles over time.

But this fall was our first chance to dedicate the team’s time toward getting cards made to really hack away at the Backlog … and they have done so in a big way!

We have a whopping 43 cards entering MTGO for the first time with tomorrow’s release, and 37 of them will be collectible starting next week in Treasure Chests! The full list is in the table at the end of this article – go check it out. 

Seven Completed Backlog Decks On Sale Tomorrow

On top of getting dozens of cards made, we wanted to ensure as many complete decks as possible could be finished in this burst.

The great news is that one Commander set will be complete with this release – The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander. A second set, March of the Machine Commander, will also be complete once we account for card swaps.

We also get our first complete decks from Commander 2021 (known as Strixhaven Commander on MTGO – 3 of the 5 decks) and Streets of New Capenna Commander (1 of 5 decks).

In a few cases, we have done card swaps due to decks having cards not expected to be implemented on MTGO soon.

Here’s what will be added to the MTGO Store following tomorrow’s downtime:

*Planechase components not included with this deck

These decks represent 13 new commanders to build around, or combine them with our Commander Workshop for hundreds of possibilities!

How to Get These New Cards

We’ll have a special slot in the Treasure Chest going live next week, December 18, dedicated to just the 37 rare cards in this group. When available, extended-art versions of cards in the decks will be in the Chest. 

The 6 commons and uncommons will be distributed as part of the January Magic Online Player Rewards grant.

What’s Next for the Commander Backlog

In 2025, we’ll be back in the world where we nibble away at this Backlog as time allows at the end of each Standard set’s development cycle. This does occupy the same set of work for the Cardset team as existing card bugs, and all those things are prioritized.

Among Commander sets that are officially part of the Commander Backlog (AFC, C21, CLB Commander Decks, MIC, NCC, VOC), there are 79 cards across 14 decks left to get. 16 of those cards are considered in the hardest category – where it might take a single developer several days to sort through the spaghetti of code to devise a solution.

A step below the Commander Backlog are cards from ancillary sets (J22, CLB main set, CLU, Unfinity die-rolling cards, etc). Those that didn’t sneak into the list this time will continue to be pick-ups when we code new mechanics for Standard.

As has become custom, look for additions from the Backlog in our set debut articles that go live a couple weeks before a set’s on-sale date. If you don’t see your favorite card now, know that the card is on the To-Do list, but it may be a while yet.

We thank you for being the best community in gaming and look forward to more fun in 2025 – we'll see you on the battlefield!

The Full List