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. Silver-bordered cards come from the Un-sets (Unglued, Unhinged, Unstable and the new Unsanctioned), humorous sets that experiment with mechanics not seen in normal Magic, as well as some silver-bordered promo cards based on themes and characters outside the Magic multiverse. Silver-bordered cards are often hilarious or simply mechanically fascinating, but can often lead to disagreement over unclear issues. With this Un-Commander variant and website, we offer a different way to play with these cards, aiming to facilitate their use in multiplayer Magic using a functional ruleset and philosophy.

Origins

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. As a casual-focused format which encourages fun interaction, Commander does sound like the perfect format for silver-bordered cards. It was great fun, but all players had to go on was a rather minimal preliminary banlist and caution list put out by the EDH Rules Committee along with a few guidelines. While an exhaustive banlist would have been slightly overkill for what was only ever supposed to be a temporary change, it essentially left each playgroup to exercise their common sense when deciding which cards to allow and how to manage this shift of the Commander 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 easier to come to a consensus on how to interpret the more befuddling cards and their interactions. The multiplayer nature of Commander makes this much more difficult as more people have to agree so that the game can move forward. That’s where UnCommander comes in.

UnCommander on EDHSilver.com

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,
• A Philosophy page explaining the reasoning behind the decisions we made. It also gives an guide to how we have issued errata to cards, so you can minimize having to look up card entries on this website while playing.
• A Banlist page that outlines the reasons different cards are banned in UnCommander.
• A Rules Overview page that acts as a primer for the main differences between regular Commander and UnCommander.
• An UnCommander Rules List page that provides a rules framework, and details how to handle some of the more complicated aspects introduced with silver-bordered cards.
• A Blog that covers updates to the website, rules and errata changes, and events on the EDH Silver Discord server.

The UnCommander variant aims to provide a stable middle ground between the world of silver-bordered cards and normal Commander.  The rules framework helps cover many bizarre corner cases the wacky Un-cards can create. With UnCommander,  you can use these fascinating effects to spice up your games of Commander even further, whilst minimizing headaches.

Additionally, community feedback is very important to us. We run a Discord server as a platform for players to discuss UnCommander and get in touch with us. If you have any suggestions or comments, please contact us on Discord or by email at info@edhsilver.com.

The Traffic Light Rating System

Each UnCommander card entry has a Traffic Light Rating label. This makes it easy to see a card entry’s legality and what formats it’s included in.

Legality

Banned ("stop")	This card is banned in the format due to containing meta elements outside the UnCommander rules framework or for conflicting with the Commander philosophy.  For the main reasons why cards are banned, see the Banlist page. Our own Philosophy page covers our general approach to cards in UnCommander.
Legal - use with caution ("amber")	This card is legal, but comes with a warning for players and playgroups. This may be due to issues fitting it into the rules framework, or some other reason, such as being problematic to play against 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 go (legal) or stop (banned).
Legal ("go")	This card is legal in the format.

 

Format

The Traffic Light Rating label on a card entry also contains information on what formats the card is included in, regardless of its legality rating. The two UnCommander formats are UnCommander Core and UnCommander UnOrthodox.

UnCommander:	“UnCommander” refers to both UnCommander formats generally. These cards are included in both UnCommander Core and UnCommander UnOrthodox. The Rules Overview page has a more detailed explanation of the formats’ different roles.
UnOrthodox supplement:	“UnOrthodox supplement” refers to the UnOrthodox supplement for UnCommander, so they are only included in UnCommander UnOrthodox.

The Complete Traffic Light Rating label

Put together, the legality and format parts of the Traffic Light Rating label look like this. Each label will look like one of the following on the UnCommander card entries.

UnCommander: Banned	UnOrthodox supplement: Banned
UnCommander: Legal - use with caution	UnOrthodox supplement: Legal - use with caution
UnCommander: Legal	UnOrthodox supplement: Legal