Commander

Commander is a set of 5 preconstructed theme decks based on the casual fan-made and maintained format of the same name (previously known as Elder Dragon Highlander) that had been around for many years. While the format is still maintained and controlled by the players, this was the first time Wizards provided a product specifically for a player-made format. The five decks included 51 new cards that were legal in eternal formats, The set was released on June 17, 2011 and each deck retails for $29.95. as well as several older commons and uncommons that, while not particularly valuable, were harder to find due to their age.

Commander was Wizards' 2011 entry in their "Summer of Multiplayer" theme, following Planechase and Archenemy.

Set details
The Commander product consists of five decks, each 100 cards strong, that are ready-to-play Commander decks right out of the box, with the option of choosing one of the three legendary enemy-tri-colored creatures each deck includes as the commander. None of the decks contain any cards that contain mana symbols not found on these three cards. Additionally, each deck contains one enemy-colored legendary creature and is easily modified to use that creature as the commander by replacing cards outside of its color identity with other cards from the player's collection. All decks contain Sol Ring and Command Tower.

Each deck also came with oversized foil versions of each of the three wedge commanders.

Commander was the first deck-based retail product to contain new and previously unreleased cards. These cards became legal in the sanctioned Eternal formats Vintage and Legacy, but not in Standard or Extended, upon the sets release. Many of these cards are multiplayer themed and focus on the political interactions on the table, for example giving an effect to all opponents of a chosen player. As such, Commander also introduces a new ability word in Join forces which allows all players to get a similar effect at the same time.

An oddity about the Commander set is the card numbering of hybrid mana cards. In normal sets, where hybrid cards are more prevalent, hybrid cards come after non-hybrid multicolored cards in the collector number sequence, but in Commander, hybrid and non-hybrid multicolored cards are numbered together. The same is true for split cards, though Fire // Ice is the only representative of those in the set.

Mechanics
The ability word Join forces allows any number of players to pay mana to increase the effectiveness of the card. Starting with the controller of the card with Join forces, each player may pay any amount of mana. Then, an effect occurs based on the total amount of mana paid by all players. All join forces cards included in the set have symmetric effects that benefit all players equally.

Cycles
Commander has six cycles:

Commander also contains a number of reprinted cycles in lands and mana-producing artifacts, though these cycles are not always complete. These cycles include Ravnica Bounce lands, Signets, Onslaught Cycling lands, Lorwyn Vivid lands, Time Spiral Storage lands, Zendikar Refuges.

Theme decks
Commander consists of five decks:

The new cards are evenly distributed amongst the five decks.

Notable cards

 * Scavenging Ooze, a staple in several green-based decks in several formats thanks to its ability to remove cards from the opponent's graveyard, was first printed in Commander.