How Commander draft works

Everyone brings a set, the pod bans and picks its commanders before a single pack is opened, then drafts two cards at a time. Here is the whole flow, step by step.

Commander draft is Commander played from a pool you drafted rather than a deck you brought. Spellpod runs its own version of it: the pod settles commanders first, by banning and picking from a shared pool, and only then opens the packs. That ordering is the whole point, and it is what lets the format work with any set rather than only the handful Wizards built for it.

It runs from one to six players, free in the browser, with no install.

Everyone brings a set

In the lobby each player chooses a set and locks in. The commander pool is then assembled from every set anyone chose, plus the Commander product tied to each one. That second part matters: it means a set's precon face commanders are in the pool alongside the cards from the main set, so the choice is much wider than the sets alone would suggest.

Nobody is limited to their own set once the draft starts. Your set contributes packs to the whole table, and you draft from everyone's.

The ban and pick

The pod rolls for order, then works through the commander pool in a snake:

1. Ban, in order. Each player removes one commander from the pool.
2. Pick, in order. Each player claims one commander as their own.
3. Ban again, back down the line in reverse.
4. Pick again, back down the line in reverse.

So every player bans two commanders and keeps two. The bans are the interesting half. In a format where a single commander can set the tone of a whole table, being able to take one off the board before anyone builds toward it changes what the evening looks like, and it is a decision made in the open with everyone watching.

A commander someone has claimed is gone from the pool, so the later picks are made knowing what is already spoken for.

Then the packs

Once the commanders are settled the pack draft begins. Packs come from every set the pod chose, and the host picks how many packs each player opens, from one to six. A four player pod at three packs each is drafting from four different sets across twelve packs.

You take two cards from every pack rather than one. That is the rule the paper format uses, for two reasons that both apply here: your deck has to sit inside your commander's color identity, so picking one at a time means spending most of the draft unable to commit, and taking two at a time keeps the session to a sensible length.

Building the deck

At the build screen you have the two commanders you claimed, and you can add a third from any legendary creature you drafted. Three commanders is a Spellpod rule rather than a paper one, and it exists because a pool you drafted in an hour is a lot less reliable than a constructed deck: the extra option is what stops a bad run of packs leaving you with a commander you cannot build around.

The deck saves to your account with its commanders attached, and the pod can move straight to a table and play.

Playing on your own

Drafting alone adds a single bot so the packs have somewhere to pass. It is the quickest way to feel out the ban and pick before committing an evening to it, and the deck it produces is a real one you can keep.

Start a Commander draft

How it differs from the other drafts here

Spellpod runs four kinds of draft and they are easy to confuse. Commander draft is the one with the ban and pick.

Common questions