Commander Brackets Explained: The Five Power Levels and Card Limits

Commander Brackets are Wizards of the Coast’s five-level scale for how strong a Commander deck is: 1 Exhibition, 2 Core, 3 Upgraded, 4 Optimized and 5 cEDH. Each bracket sets how many cards from Wizards’ high-impact list a deck may run and how many turns a game should last, so a table can agree on power first.

Why Wizards made the Commander Brackets

Commander Brackets exist to start a conversation before a game. When Wizards introduced the system in February 2025, it said Commander had lacked a good way to discuss what kind of game players wanted. The brackets give a shared vocabulary: “my deck is a 2” tells the table more than “it’s casual.”

Wizards’ Commander page calls the brackets an entirely optional way to match players with similar intents, and the system is still labeled beta. The October 2025 update says the expectations are not strict: a deck that breaks one of them once is not automatically out of its bracket.

The five Commander Brackets at a glance

The five Commander Brackets below use the descriptions and turn expectations from Wizards’ October 21, 2025 update, and the card limits from the Commander format page.

Wizards groups brackets 1, 2 and 3 as levels of socially focused play, and brackets 4 and 5 as high-power or competitive play.

Wizards’ list of high-impact Commander cards

Wizards keeps a list of individual cards that count against the bracket limits. In its first announcement, it described them as cards that dramatically warp Commander games: they let one player run away with resources, block others from playing, or find the best cards in a deck without a real cost. In February 2026 it summed them up as cards players would want to know about before a game, and might prefer to opt out of.

The list changes over time. The February 9, 2026 update added two cards to the list. For one of them, Wizards wanted players to opt in to games where it can appear, which in practice means bracket 3 and up. The same update named a card that would stay off the list. That update also said Wizards would hold off on bracket-level changes until it had seen at least one MagicCon in 2026. Check the current list on Wizards’ Commander page before you count your deck, rather than relying on an old copy.

Commander precon decks to start from

Shop commander decks (preconstructed)→

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• Foundations Commander decksBrowse →
• Multiverse Reforged Commander deckBrowse →
• Secrets of Strixhaven Commander decksBrowse →

Other limits inside each Commander bracket

Turn counts are only part of each Commander bracket. Wizards’ Commander page also sets expectations for each bracket on things like combos, extra turns and mass land denial. The original 2025 rules kept those out of the lower brackets, and the October 2025 update kept the idea of no game-ending combos at the lower brackets.

The same October update removed tutor limits from the brackets entirely. Strong search cards are now handled through the high-impact card list instead of a separate rule.

Where preconstructed Commander decks sit

Preconstructed Commander decks no longer belong to one bracket. When Wizards launched the system, it said the average precon played at Core, bracket 2. In October 2025 it removed that link, saying Core is still a great landing point for players but does not have to be tied to precons.

So a precon fresh from the box often plays around bracket 2, but not always. The February 2026 update noted that many recent precons, especially Universes Beyond decks, include one of the cards that update added to the list. Brackets 1 and 2 run no listed cards, so a precon with that card belongs at bracket 3 or higher. Count the listed cards in the decklist and think about how fast it can win before you name its bracket.

To pick a first deck, see the Commander precon guide. For what makes a Commander deck in the first place, read what a Commander deck is.

Foundations Commander decks

Shop foundations Commander decks→

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• Calling All AngelsBrowse →
• Reign of DragonsBrowse →
• Tramplesaurus RexBrowse →

Building a Commander deck to a target bracket

Building to a target Commander bracket starts with choosing the bracket before the cards. For a bracket 2 deck, leave out every card on the high-impact list and aim for wins your opponents can see coming and answer. For bracket 3, pick up to three listed cards and expect games to run at least six turns.

When you upgrade a precon, each new card from the list can change its bracket, so recount after every swap. The deck-building steps, from choosing a commander to the land count, are in how to build a Commander deck.