Home of the UnCommander MTG variant

UnCommander is an unofficial variant of the hugely popular Commander/Elder Dragon Highlander format for Magic: the Gathering, allowing for the use of silver-bordered cards among other things. When we set out to create this variant and website we did so with the aim to create a functional ruleset and philosophy to allow people to play with the often hilarious or simply mechanically fascinating silver-bordered cards of the Un-Sets.

UnCommander was inspired by the brief period of time during which these cards became legal in the normal variant of Commander from the 1st of December 2017 to 15th of January 2018. It was great fun, but all players had to go on was the preliminary banlist and caution list put out by the EDH Rules Committee along with a few guidelines. While this was only a temporary change, it essentially left each playgroup to exercise their common sense when deciding which cards to allow and how to manage the change to the format. If you tried to play with silver-bordered cards outside your normal group, it often led to disagreements over interpretation and wasted time. In two-player games, it is possible to come to a consensus on how to interpret the more befuddling cards and their interactions. However tfhe multiplayer nature of Commander makes this much more difficult as more people have to agree so that the game can move forward. On the other hand, as a casual-focused format which encourages fun social interaction, Commander sounds like a great format for silver-bordered cards.

That’s where UnCommander comes in.

On this website you will find a curated list containing nearly all silver-bordered cards ever printed complete with their legality, updated rulings and card text in line with modern-day magic and the reasoning behind the decisions we made. The UnCommander format aims to provide a fair interpretation of the many bizarre corner-cases the wacky Un-cards can create and allow you to use these fascinating effects to spice up your games of Commander even further. Additionally, community feedback is very important to us. Please contact us at admin@edhsilver.com if you have any suggestions or comments. We are looking into the best options for making a community platform, such as a Discord server or a forum, and it would be good to hear what platform you think would make for the best experience.

The Traffic Light Rating System on UnCommander Card Entries
The traffic light system is a remnant from the earliest stages of the project where we assigned preliminary ratings. This was initially a time-saver as banned, or ‘Red’ cards did not need rulings or updated text. However, as the project went on we became more and more attached to the simplicity of the design.

Banned (Red): This card is illegal in the format either due to containing meta elements far outside the rules framework, or for simple game-balance reasons. In keeping with the EDH Rules Committee’s approach to normal Commander, power-level concerns will only see cards banned in the most extreme cases. (For more information on meta elements refer to our Philosophy page.)

Use with caution (Amber): This card is legal, but comes with a warning, either due to it not fitting smoothly into the rules framework, or some other reason such as power-level concerns or requiring excessive book keeping. These cards are on the fence currently. Over time and with community feedback, some of these cards will migrate to either the Red or Green brackets. Others will remain yellow if they prove to be problematic, but also functional and interesting. Although these are considered legal, this rating helps point out to players and playgroups potential problem cases.

Legal (Green): This card is legal in the format.

Format

The traffic light marker on a card entry also says which formats the card is included in, regardless of whether it is legal or not. The two UnCommander formats are UnCommander Core and UnCommander UnOrthodox.UNORTHODOX: As the project continued to grow we kept finding more and more interesting pieces of this game’s history hidden away in internet archives, old video-game adaptations and fan-magazines.

UnCommander
“UnCommander” refers to all UnCommander formats generally, so these cards are included in both UnCommander Core and UnCommander UnOrthodox.

UnOrthodox Supplement
“UnOrthodox supplement” refers to the UnOrthodox supplement for UnCommander, so they are only included in UnCommander UnOrthodox.