I haven't played MTG Arena in a long time 😅 but I would go back if they did Commander in arena. It is a longer game time but I'd want to play with my friends.
Same for me, I haven’t played in about 6 months, but I would come back to it if commander was added, I always wanted to play a multiplayer format with my friends in arena (I would also return if the added THG 👀…. Not that its a possibility but still… 👀)
I'd come back to it and probably drop stupid amounts of cash for wildcards. Most of my years-long group have moved across the country, but we've all been waiting for multiplayer on Arena
If Arena can pull off having Commander like it is played in real life, that would be awesome. Historic Brawl is close enough but not the same. Messaging would also need to be added to help with the social aspect of Commander
Well considering most IRL commander players don’t know about the social aspect of commander i highly doubt gen z arena players will likely understand it either.
You can play Golos into World Tree into 25 Gods with haste in Historic Brawl. I have to admit when i play this, i face 80% other Golos decks, so they have a different matchmaking than the rest, but still - i know why it is banned in regular commander :D There is a meta and it consists mostly of Esika, Fynn, Korvold, Golos, Volo, Kinnan, Tasha, Baral and some Azorius Control Decks, but if you play several rounds each day, you start to recognize the usual suspects. I can recommend Hinata Land Destruction, Ashiok, Nightmare Muse and Nicol Bolas, Dragon God for some "fun" rounds :D
Boseiju has been a godsend against the golos decks. I'm running gruul aggro with H&A and I'm doing well against golos. Hit that world tree with the boseiju and they usually tap out.
@Karl Grylls i did not recommend Prismatic Bridge, i said it is part of the meta. I did suggest Hinata Control with lots of copy triggers and land destruction though :D It works like a charm against the decks that usually run away with their engine (Golos / Pris. Bridge). I love to go hunting for meta decks
As someone who doesn't have friends to play anything with (especially Commander), having the format come to Arena would be a beneficial addition. Logistically, it could be a nightmare and I have every doubt that they would ever implement it given the way things are.
If they really wanted to make a absolute colossal amount of money, they should definitely consider adding commander. It’s one of the most popular formats, and it would get me personally to play arena. I don’t really have an interest in standard
I am truly surprised that they do not realize this or just do it. WotC is the greediest company ever and they try to get every cent out of their customers at this point anyway, so why not just do this!
So I’m not sure if you know this or not but the closest we can get to commander on MTG Arena is by playing “Historic Brawl”. Yes it’s still 1v1 but it opens up to some of the older cards in mtg history as well as it being 100 card singleton format. If I’m really craving a commander match and can’t meet up at an LGS or with my normal playgroup this usually satisfies my itch
It's almost good enough for me. Playtesting would be incredibly useful on Arena if it wasn't for the deck-building problems. It doesn't do much for me if I can't get my cards into the deck.
I think making a seperate client for commander would be the best and smartest way to go, Magic Arena : Commander. With it still being connected in some ways to the other client, friends you have in one client you have in both and such. Having these be seperate would allow for so many things you might not otherwise be able to do, and how you would go about doing things for a commander client wouldn't be hampered by how the current client is.
I can see that, plus using Discord to chat with whoever you're playing with can cover the social part of Commander. Plus, Commander having a separate Client means having a pool of currently legal cards in Commander can be updated if certain cards are banned if there's a busted combo or interaction.
With like 20,000 unique cars in the format, it would probably benefit from its own client that’s just commander arena. And with alllllll the different possible interactions that would have to be implemented, it could be a years long project to fully realize. That being said, it would be awesome to have that quality of an online commander format
My favorite part of mtga is the fact that it's good for people who want to play awesome cards that cost a shit ton without breaking the bank, like i basically got Ulamog, the Ceaseless hunger for free just for opening packs from coins earned from quests due to the wildcard system
I’ve been playing strictly Historic Brawl for quite some time. It’s obviously the most commander “like” format on there and while you don’t have access to as many cards, you can still create a lot of fun interactions. I actually applaud it for that, I’m not going to see the same staples every game I play and it adds to the fun of brewing. Making a deck function without using the rhystic studies, mana crypts, and dockside’s. I’d really just ask for it to become 4 player and I think it’d be a solid format that continuously grows from here.
My thoughts exactly... they could allow us to play limited commander with the same cards they allow us to play on arena already and then add maybe 1 or 2 new commander sets a month or so. I'd honestly be happy just getting to play commander with the cards I have on there for the time being though.
Adding two more people to arena would be weird because when someone has a large board state on arena the permanents get smaller so the pov would have to be looked at because how would you interact with the other 2 that aren't across from you.
I think the best way would be splitting the screen with the the active player being the top half of screen, yours would be the bottom left half of the screen and the other 2 would be split on the bottom right side of the screen. You could press and hold on any players screen to zoom in closer to see them better. When it's your turn what you would see is half the screen is yours like it is normally right now but the other 3 would be split equally on the other half and you click and hold on an opponent to zoom in making their appearance use half the screen to have a zoomed in screen like you do 1v1 then let off and it goes back to half screen for you and 3 way split screen on the other half.
Arena is worlds better than WOTC's previous digital attempts, but still has a lot of work to be done. Would be great to see the team get 4-player commander/brawl going!
I don't think the current interface could support Multi-Player. As it is, the "timer" system in Arena makes it virtually impossible to play Combo. There would need to be MAJOR changes in the engine structure to be able to play properly. i.e. 4 players passing/holding priority, in order, for everything that pops up on the stack.
I figure it'll happen eventually, and I kinda look forward to it. When it comes to the card pool, I imagine that it could be done bit by bit on a monthly basis(though I could absolutely see WOTC charging a subscription fee for it). Even if it was just 1v1, I'd probably at least try to play regularly, as it would be better than hardly ever(or never) getting to play.
I bet Commander would even be an easy format to implement- you could swipe (or click the arrow to toggle) between your three opponents. Easy. They’d get so much money!
Another VERY important part to take into account is the processing needed for a 4player game of commander to happen in MTG Arena. There are already infinite combos that break arena relatively quickly. There are combos that aren't infinite that severely lag the game. Those are in a 1v1 game, in a 4 player game it would make the processing of this very difficult and the costs to fix this, if they could reasonably fix it. Would cost more money that Wizards of the Coast would likely be able to justify given their budget vs profit margins in MTG Arena.
There’s is a crafting aspect where you use wildcards to make cards Mitch. One thing to think about is players that only want to play Commander would just need to get 1 copy of any cards they need. So instead of using 4 wildcards to make a play set of mythic/rares they’d just use 1 and spend the other 3 on other cards. In paper you’d need to pull out your single copy of doubling season and put it back in a different deck if you have one copy. So there would be less incentive for people to crack packs or craft for usually a full playset. There would be a lot of crafting up front to get staples, but then a large slowdown unless people need cards from new sets to switch in.
There's 0% chance mtga will get commander in it's current state... if you have ever played goblins against life gain you will understand why the game chugs if you get more than 20 triggers
Too bad not every card in the game is serial numbered as that would help the paywall thing so every unique card could be uploaded to arena and unlocked with their serial code
This comment got a little lengthy... So I have separated it into the different key Points that you covered in your video. Social: Have people agree to new TOS saying that they won't hold Wizards liable. and of course have a STRONG report system in place for improper use. but then give us voice chat (i'd say for that format only, but it would also be nice to have in the others too). Just like on any other online game that has open chats, yes there will be people who abuse it in one way or another. but then they get reported and muted, or banned. that takes care of the social side of things IMO; not as great as sitting with friends playing, but a helluva lot more convenient. Card base: They definitely COULD do it. They'd probably end up charging, as you said. and it would ONLY be available to the Commander format. This would be the biggest hurdle for Wizards as they would have to come up with and program in all of the Animations and such for the older cards. Economy: They would have to make a way for wildcards to be purchasable, and again probably restrict that to Commander only. Currently, besides the Rare and Mythic wildcard packs that are available as i'm typing this, the only way to get wildcards is to open x number of packs or get the wildcard as a pull in the pack. They make them available for Purchase through the Gem/coin options already available in-game and you will have solved, and in my mind improved, the economy issue. Think of it this way: right now, only "money" players can own some of the more (ridiculously) expensive cards. Why is that? there are a finite number of those cards printed and supply and demand come into play to control the market price of a card. So people who can't afford to pay $100+ for a single card are restricted to second or third tier options. In Arena, that wouldn't be an issue. Yes, it would quickly become "Pay to win" because people willing to spend money on gems to get the wildcards would of course have better collections; but that happens already and isn't the point of this comment. And this would make Wizards more money because (unless I'm missing something on the resale market) they don't make a penny on the resale market. This would be a way for them to add revenue from their BIGGEST, yet I dare say least profitable, format. There are a ton of other options/reasons that this would be a HUGELY profitable option for Wizards; but again, not the point of this comment. 1v1-4 Player UI Changes: i don't know that this is as difficult as we are imagining. they already have the programing for different areas; for example graveyard, exile, deck. and they have the ability to click on a card for more info. What I would do is have Your board on the bottom half and then split the top half into three, which you can click one to focus on. For interactions between other players have the top go to the two interacting and have the cards interacting be in the foreground to show the interactions. It could get a little messy when a "wide" deck goes to attack EVERYONE but it gets messy in paper magic too haha. If anything this would be a bit easier to follow because of the arrows. They would definitely need to tweak the timers in the game to give people to take a look at the board state and make an informed decision. As for people going AFK? That definitely happens on real tables too. I don't know the amount of times that someone has gotten up to go to the bathroom or other such and we've had to wait for them to come back because we were attacking them or some other such (i'm guilty of it too). So you put a skip option in for AFK or something like "Unless directly impacted" so that it skips their priority automatically unless they are attacked, targeted or there is some sort of board wipe. At that point the normal timer would come into play.
I would add that they just add the card database and that way when you buy a paper pre built deck you get a free digital copy of the pre-built deck and then how they use the wild cards now it could be used to get those few cards you want to make your pre-built better. Everything else I agree with as well
I've thought a lot about this subject, I'll try to describe them in as few words as possible: *TLDR:* Commander will most likely be added to Arena (which will likely take at least a year unless already in development), but it won't live up to the IRL experience A recent survey actually asked players whether or not they'd like to see "multiplayer" in Arena, as in 4 player free for all, and what formats they'd like to see. Commander was an option, as well as features such as text/voice chat, and open friend requests. I think Commander will be playable at some point, but there are fundamental errors in the way the game sees some interactions (e.g. Stonecoil Serpent, an X cost, was countered by a spell that could only counter cmc 4+, there's also the Ashaya vs Sludge Monster glitch that's known issue). The main issue here is the amount of development time it would take to iron out all of the existing rules conflicts, plus the addition of possible conflicts with multiple players... not to mention the slowdown and crashing when too many triggers are on the stack. As far as economy is concerned, I don't have much input, as I've been playing almost daily for years now, so I have 60-70% of the cards in the game without spending any money, that being said, there are a lot of cards I'd like to see in the game that I consider Commander staples (Fractured Identity, Sol Ring, even some extra scummy combo pieces). Mitch makes some great points here as to the social aspects of the game, no matter how Commander would be implemented, there will certainly be benefits to playing in person, and drawbacks to playing on Arena.
I would love for them to atleast bring all the commander cards to Arena. I would be fine if they add yet another "format" like brawl to Arena and say, "Right this is Comander Brawl. Its not Comander, but its better than nothing." I was massively excited for the Mur'kul, Lord of Bones and had a deck list ready to go, only for it to never come to Arena. Great content as always.
I left when alchemy was added to arena but I definitely be back for commander as long as there was no alchemy and some sort of smart auto queue separation between different power level decks.
I'd like to try it on arena but most likely with friends so we can coordinate decks and chat on discord or such. Playing against random people that rope and disconnect and so on and no way of communication feels way less desirable.
My brother got me into magic commander and I got my 1st paper pre-made commander deck sefris of the hidden ways commander of the dungeons & dragons adventures in the forgotten realms. Then I found mtg arena and loved it as well with all the free cards you get. You get a free deck of every color just for playing the tutorial. I then used those to make other decks. The more you play you earn different wild cards that you can trade for any other card you want with mythic being rare and what you trade for commanders or other high profile cards. After 3 months I have like 20-30 decks and 10 historic brawl decks I've made for FREE. So I love it but... I want to play commander to have the multiple player aspect which is the biggest thing missing. I feel like they're missing an opportunity to give us commander mode just because they don't have all the cards on there yet. They could give us limited commander using the cards they have on there and keep adding new ones as they go. Just imagine too in the future when you buy a commander pre built deck new you get the digital version of those cards free on there to play online with. It would incentives buying paper decks to play with friends irl but also online with strangers to make new friends while laying in bed playing at night lol. A lot of things they could do but we need some type of multi player commander on there even if it's limited at first.
I just checked Scryfall for every card on arena that is legal in commander (this includes cards for explorer but not the digital only cards) and it said 7,206 cards. Which isn’t great but also it’s 7 times what’s legal in only Brawl (btw brawl is standard only cards Historic brawl is probably what you were looking for)
@@Cynsham I know but just searching for cards legal in brawl won’t show the cards he was looking for. I haven’t played too much of arena but when I did it was to play Historic Brawl when they made it permanent
I agree with you completely. The face to face aspect of commander is why I play it. If that was taken away, it would not be nearly as enjoyable to play
I am actually surprised it hasn't happened yet. I know multiplayer support have been on many people's wishlist for a long time. Not just for commander but for other multiplayer formats as well.
I guess in theory they could do commander on Arena. I have to say though: there's a huge number of cards that would need to be added to the game before they even get close. That's 5-10 years of back-releasing sets right there. (& I reckon I might have been a bit optimistic in that estimation.) They could take an abridged route, & source deckstats from edhrec so that they print 99% of all the most commonly used cards in Commander. That would chop in half the number of cards they'd need to work through, but then again you wouldn't enjoy the same freedom to construct that you'd enjoy in paper commander. Either way, it's still years of work to get anywhere near the actual card pool for commander. & honestly; given the time & work involved it's probably not cost effective for them to do. The other elephant in the room (arena only does 1v1) is probably not actually that bad. Compared to fixing the card pool, patching arena to handle a 4 player game should be trivial.* Tldr: they "could" do it. But it's a monumental amount of work, & I don't think it makes financial sense for them. *Obviously I don't know the internal workings of MTGA, so this is assumption on my part.
I'm basing this on the title alone. Arena kind of already has Commander on the client. It's called the historic brawl. Which yes brawl but it uses every card on arena is hundred card Singleton and you have a legendary creature or Planeswalker, but many people in the commander community think that you should be able to run walkers as your commanders anyways. Will edit at end if thoughts have changed.
The closest they get is in both you have a legendary creature or planeswalker in the command zone and are singleton formats. Other than that they are very much fundamentally different
I feel like after another year or so adding commander but not going into backlog of cards could be interesting so you don't see all the same combinations and broken setups could be interesting because allowing all cards and easy access to them means most people in random play will just look up and build the most degen decks so limiting the pool a bit more can help with that (or hurt equally possibly.
I don’t think they should add EDH to Arena. It’d be such a headache incorporating all the cards and it would lose the social, in-person aspect of it like you said.
Historic Brawl is the format you should have looked up on scryfall. It is going to have the Alchemy cards, but would be the closer number to of cards on arena.
Hey Mitch, really like this new format! Couple of areas of improvement: I personally think it would be beneficial to have minor cuts at times, so that if you do get off-topic or rambley, forget words, thoughts, etc, that way you can make simple cuts/edits to keep things more on track. PleasantKenobi does that for his videos and it's not distracting and helps the video be more focused. Other pieces would be to try and cut back on filler words. I know that's tough cuz I'm also from the midwest but the "ya knows", "whatnot", etc. can get distracting/make the points you are making seem more disjointed and less coherent. My 2 cents on your 2 cents, but I have always enjoyed listening to your input on all things MTG!
I feel like them adding commander to arena would also need to herald more then 1v1, I’d like to build some of the commander precons that are released in sets into arena
The problem MTG Arena has is that it requires you to first "get" the card in their system to make the decks. Which means I would have to first buy the cards in the game to be able to even play the decks. Although i have heard (I admit i havent played in a few years) that in Historic, the cards you use are already unlocked? I dont know if this is true, but if it is, then yes, there is a way for them to make the format viable in their system. They could make it so that you can make decks for commander, and you would have all the cards unlocked FOR that format alone, while keeping their current setup for their standard format. A subscription for commander which unlocks all cards would also not be that bad of a thing imo. As long as its not too expensive (I would say no more than 10-15 a month) they could make some serius bank while allowing players to be able to play as much as they want.
A better pay option for wild cards would be a wonderful option to get decks you want. Right now it's stupid expensive to buy rare and mythic rare wild cards. I wish we had better options.
I think it can happen in a massive way but also respect what came before . Mtg is big and it can get far bigger. Wizerds needs to make a far better system then mtg arena though and build a 4 or 5 player online system using the avatar system but as your commander instead and have virtual avatar with voice chat system . Gaming is 10000billion times bigger and it would push it to far more people and it would be a massive win for the entire community and for the company
Agreed. I tried arena. Brawl was ok. I was reminded why I don’t play standard. But ultimately, I just don’t enjoy magic in that setting. I like commander, limited, sealed, in person.
I doubt they’ll ever add commander since they won’t edit the mtg arena client to allow for more than 2 players. They make it sound like it’s a monumental task whenever it’s brought up. Even though it’s a hot take, I like playing “historic” Brawl on mtg arena so I can use cards all the way back to amonkhet. And those decks play differently than commander. Like I was able to make this mono-white vampire ‘Mavren Fein’ brawl deck with mostly ixalan cards. I love that deck because it makes for quick and fun gameplay. Brawl is a nice change of pace from commander.
It's halfway there with brawl just 40 more cards and don't have the set restriction that brawl has. Or if they just remove the set restriction from brawl and turn brawl into just 60 card commander.
Is there some unwritten rule that nobody talks about being able to use OBS/Spelltable & Moxfield test play as a way to play Commander for free online with friends (obviously WOC would not like this to be common)
Commander with all the cards is impossible to happen in a few years, since it'll take longer than that to get Pioneer on Arena at the rate they're going
Will it? Possibly. Should it? Definitely not. Why? Because Commander online wouldn't work very well without the ability to chat freely with the other players, but adding freeform chat to Arena would be a nightmare. With online anonymity replacing face-to-face social contact (even if the faces are remote from each other), all of the politicking and banter that makes Commander what it is would be replaced by "emotes" and roping. No thanks.
I like Arena, I just wish they had some sort of cross reward system where you could redeem paper packs for digital packs. Something like a QR code they’ll give you a digital booster, or a wildcard or something like that. I’m also not naive enough to think that this would actually happen.
It should happen Pokemon is doing it already, I dont understand why not mtg too. A simple code in every sealed product would work wonders to drive both communities(online and paper) upwards as one has an incentive to buy paper and the other can try the client since they got all the codes lying around.
I was just saying this in another comment lol. So I highly agree. I currently only own 1 paper deck commander but I have 20-30 decks made on arena for free just from playing it a lot and getting wildcards from opening card packs you earn for free. I'd buy more paper decks if they gave us the digital versions as well included. They just need to add the card database and worry about card animations later adding them over time as they already do now
I have touch arena since it came out i just wasn't doing the grind cuz I have a little amount of cards as much as I WOULD like commander to come to arena but I just don't have a good time on arena
I don't think you will ever be able to politic on arena. They have too many safeguards in place for chat to make sure there's no obscenities or profanities. Also, they are at least 18,000 cards shy of having the full list of playable EDH cards, so I don't think it will ever happen
They need commander at this point wizards hasn’t been doing good in it’s PR and to add the disaster which is Aftermath so this could be a good bounce back for the community
edh on arena wouldnt need all the cards just a large pool. All the cards that have already been place on arena, that arently currently usable due to rotation is huge. It would need a new name format as it wouldnt have all the older cards but it would be fine with the current database
I think Historic Brawl should be 4 players. But they should have built it from the start. If Arena didn't had a mobile client then Arena could have easily done 4 players. Plus 4 players formats like two headed giant be able to be played.
Oh my god, Mitch, what a boomer! Imagine wanting to sit with OTHER PEOPLE, play some mtg and have interactions with people! hahaha I am 100% kidding, although, I did really want to be able to play EDH on arena, I actually changed my mind. I think, aside form the headache it would require to program, something would be lost by not playing in person. If there was a way for WotC to have a discord type thing where you use YOUR cards and deal with all the interactions, I would be ok with that, but in-person commander is probably still better.
Commander absolutely, 100%, no questions asked could and SHOULD be put into Arena, but they won't put commander into Arena any time soon if ever, they're too lazy to put any actual time or effort into improving the game since they're already raking in boatloads of cash from it even in the barren, shitty state it has been in for a long time. Arena not having commander is one of the reasons I stopped playing. The other reason I stopped playing is because the card economy in the game is horrific and the completely irrelevant "rewards" they give you are underwhelming to put it nicely. Playing 15+ matches every single day in order to collect all the daily rewards is time consuming, and you're spending multiple hours of the day playing in order to get a couple thousand gold and open like 2 packs. Coincidentally and ironically, they tried to make magic more "casual" and "affordable" if you don't want to have to buy a whole bunch of physical cards, but if you want to have a decent collection of cards in MTGA you will be guaranteed to spend more money on the game than you would have to in order to get the exact same cards in paper magic.
They seem to be slowly working toward having all of Modern available, once that's done we can start calling for classic cards to appear. The bigger issues are definitely communication and multi-player, neither of which are easy to implement.
I actually think arena commander would actually end the age of command. Commander would still be around, but putting it on arena would make a downturn in its popularity. You are having fun with your buds playing commander, fair, fun. But think about how commander would actually happen on arena. You have a lot longer between your turns. You aren't chatting with people. There is no rule 0. You don't know the people and you can bet they are going to be playing as close to CEDH as possible because they want to win. I think arena commander would show people the worst of commander rather than the best of it.
In a conversation about whether EDH capability could or should be added to Arena, you have to consider that MTGO and Arena are fundamentally different; Paper Magic and MTGO are *trading card* games, whereas Arena is a *collectible card* game. Without a secondary market or the ability to trade cards between players, EDH on Arena would very quickly become dominated by those few players willing and able to spend piles of money obtaining powerful cards and everyone else would quickly lose interest in a 'money wins' game. This is largely the reality in the formats already on Arena, and is the main reason I no longer play it. I simply got tired of having to dump tons of money into every newly released set just to keep from getting steamrolled every game - it's just not fun anymore. Lack of ability to trade isn't just a massive downside for EDH on Arena, it's a deal-breaker. Unless WotC gave up sole control of the economy on Arena by allowing trading, EDH would not work on Arena. Since MTGO already has multiplayer EDH, it makes more sense that better graphics could be built on top of the existing code, but as Mitch pointed out, WotC and Hasbro have no incentive to pull attention away from a game where they control the entire market.
I like the sound of "uncut quarters", where you give your "two cents" unscripted about mtg and not necessarily commander related. My opinion of arena is that it's not social enough. I prefer spell table to get the social aspect when I can't play in person. I don't think it should, but I don't doubt seeing commander come to arena.
Currently you have historic brawl which has one of the stupidest ban lists mixed with the alchemy cards for arena. Ex: Demonic tutor is banned but paradox engine is unbanned. Even if they added all the cards from magic's history for a commander format and it's own ban list that reflects current commander's ban list it still wouldn't work. Essentially you would be rebuilding all of arena from the ground up to work with one format in the style it currently is in essentially being online 2.
Better question, would it matter? Would it bypass the ungodly amount of resentment that players have for the game and Hasbro? For me personally the answer is no.
If commander went to Arena I'd probably never get to play paper with my friends again because they'd default to the easier method of mechanically interacting with Magic, and I would likely sell off my collection and slowly quit playing Magic as a result because digital is never the same for me as being in person.
I say they should offer free digital versions of paper pre built commander decks you buy in the future. So it drives people to buy paper decks to play with their friends irl and then you could play that same deck you bought, online for free with strangers making new friends to play with. I own 1 paper deck and 20-30 decks on mtg arena cause I was able to earn them for free with card packs using the wild cards to get staples for those decks. It's easier for me to play brawl online than with other people irl as it's just not available in my area. I'd buy more paper decks if I could get those as digital versions included
will it? probably. Anything to make those Hasbro suits happy with cash flow. should it? Not the way it is now, because the card pool really isn't capable of handling it. Playing one on one would have people building cEDH which is that hyper competetive, and overall fairly low on the fun scale in terms of most Commander/EDH. but, Could it? absolutely. they could turn the failed Brawl into a commander that follows the rules of Pioneer cardpool.
I haven't played MTG Arena in a long time 😅 but I would go back if they did Commander in arena. It is a longer game time but I'd want to play with my friends.
Same for me, I haven’t played in about 6 months, but I would come back to it if commander was added, I always wanted to play a multiplayer format with my friends in arena (I would also return if the added THG 👀…. Not that its a possibility but still… 👀)
I'd come back to it and probably drop stupid amounts of cash for wildcards. Most of my years-long group have moved across the country, but we've all been waiting for multiplayer on Arena
They have brawl. Literally the same thing
@@gizzad you don't play brawl with four people
@@kaboomeow oh God, if I had to wait for turn in a 4 player arena match I'd put a g'un in my mouth. 😂
If Arena can pull off having Commander like it is played in real life, that would be awesome. Historic Brawl is close enough but not the same. Messaging would also need to be added to help with the social aspect of Commander
Well considering most IRL commander players don’t know about the social aspect of commander i highly doubt gen z arena players will likely understand it either.
I doubt they'd add messaging. but if they did add commander, it might come with additional quick chats.
It's getting there man. I jumped on to try historic brawl this week and was blown away by all the older cards they have available for use.
I also think that cards like Haunting Mine were implemented for a reason
You can play Golos into World Tree into 25 Gods with haste in Historic Brawl.
I have to admit when i play this, i face 80% other Golos decks, so they have a different matchmaking than the rest, but still - i know why it is banned in regular commander :D
There is a meta and it consists mostly of Esika, Fynn, Korvold, Golos, Volo, Kinnan, Tasha, Baral and some Azorius Control Decks, but if you play several rounds each day, you start to recognize the usual suspects.
I can recommend Hinata Land Destruction, Ashiok, Nightmare Muse and Nicol Bolas, Dragon God for some "fun" rounds :D
@@DNSfeatchamper for really suggesting Land destruction and the pissmatic bridge you deserve hell
Boseiju has been a godsend against the golos decks. I'm running gruul aggro with H&A and I'm doing well against golos. Hit that world tree with the boseiju and they usually tap out.
@Karl Grylls i did not recommend Prismatic Bridge, i said it is part of the meta.
I did suggest Hinata Control with lots of copy triggers and land destruction though :D It works like a charm against the decks that usually run away with their engine (Golos / Pris. Bridge). I love to go hunting for meta decks
As someone who doesn't have friends to play anything with (especially Commander), having the format come to Arena would be a beneficial addition. Logistically, it could be a nightmare and I have every doubt that they would ever implement it given the way things are.
If they really wanted to make a absolute colossal amount of money, they should definitely consider adding commander. It’s one of the most popular formats, and it would get me personally to play arena. I don’t really have an interest in standard
Same
I am truly surprised that they do not realize this or just do it.
WotC is the greediest company ever and they try to get every cent out of their customers at this point anyway, so why not just do this!
So I’m not sure if you know this or not but the closest we can get to commander on MTG Arena is by playing “Historic Brawl”. Yes it’s still 1v1 but it opens up to some of the older cards in mtg history as well as it being 100 card singleton format. If I’m really craving a commander match and can’t meet up at an LGS or with my normal playgroup this usually satisfies my itch
It's almost good enough for me. Playtesting would be incredibly useful on Arena if it wasn't for the deck-building problems. It doesn't do much for me if I can't get my cards into the deck.
I think making a seperate client for commander would be the best and smartest way to go, Magic Arena : Commander. With it still being connected in some ways to the other client, friends you have in one client you have in both and such.
Having these be seperate would allow for so many things you might not otherwise be able to do, and how you would go about doing things for a commander client wouldn't be hampered by how the current client is.
I can see that, plus using Discord to chat with whoever you're playing with can cover the social part of Commander. Plus, Commander having a separate Client means having a pool of currently legal cards in Commander can be updated if certain cards are banned if there's a busted combo or interaction.
@@Hot_Dice I meant it as if they ever were gonna do something like this, this would be the way to do it.
@@Hot_Dice Yeah, very very tricky to make something like this work.
With like 20,000 unique cars in the format, it would probably benefit from its own client that’s just commander arena. And with alllllll the different possible interactions that would have to be implemented, it could be a years long project to fully realize. That being said, it would be awesome to have that quality of an online commander format
My favorite part of mtga is the fact that it's good for people who want to play awesome cards that cost a shit ton without breaking the bank, like i basically got Ulamog, the Ceaseless hunger for free just for opening packs from coins earned from quests due to the wildcard system
QOTD: "Always Making to Look improvements" - I love your channel! Keep up the good work!
Commander's 2 Cents Uncut seems fine, easiest way to differentiate from normal videos
I’ve been playing strictly Historic Brawl for quite some time. It’s obviously the most commander “like” format on there and while you don’t have access to as many cards, you can still create a lot of fun interactions. I actually applaud it for that, I’m not going to see the same staples every game I play and it adds to the fun of brewing. Making a deck function without using the rhystic studies, mana crypts, and dockside’s. I’d really just ask for it to become 4 player and I think it’d be a solid format that continuously grows from here.
My thoughts exactly... they could allow us to play limited commander with the same cards they allow us to play on arena already and then add maybe 1 or 2 new commander sets a month or so. I'd honestly be happy just getting to play commander with the cards I have on there for the time being though.
Adding two more people to arena would be weird because when someone has a large board state on arena the permanents get smaller so the pov would have to be looked at because how would you interact with the other 2 that aren't across from you.
I think the best way would be splitting the screen with the the active player being the top half of screen, yours would be the bottom left half of the screen and the other 2 would be split on the bottom right side of the screen. You could press and hold on any players screen to zoom in closer to see them better. When it's your turn what you would see is half the screen is yours like it is normally right now but the other 3 would be split equally on the other half and you click and hold on an opponent to zoom in making their appearance use half the screen to have a zoomed in screen like you do 1v1 then let off and it goes back to half screen for you and 3 way split screen on the other half.
Arena is worlds better than WOTC's previous digital attempts, but still has a lot of work to be done. Would be great to see the team get 4-player commander/brawl going!
I don't think the current interface could support Multi-Player. As it is, the "timer" system in Arena makes it virtually impossible to play Combo. There would need to be MAJOR changes in the engine structure to be able to play properly. i.e. 4 players passing/holding priority, in order, for everything that pops up on the stack.
I figure it'll happen eventually, and I kinda look forward to it. When it comes to the card pool, I imagine that it could be done bit by bit on a monthly basis(though I could absolutely see WOTC charging a subscription fee for it). Even if it was just 1v1, I'd probably at least try to play regularly, as it would be better than hardly ever(or never) getting to play.
I bet Commander would even be an easy format to implement- you could swipe (or click the arrow to toggle) between your three opponents. Easy. They’d get so much money!
It should, I want to play it... A lot
Another VERY important part to take into account is the processing needed for a 4player game of commander to happen in MTG Arena. There are already infinite combos that break arena relatively quickly. There are combos that aren't infinite that severely lag the game. Those are in a 1v1 game, in a 4 player game it would make the processing of this very difficult and the costs to fix this, if they could reasonably fix it. Would cost more money that Wizards of the Coast would likely be able to justify given their budget vs profit margins in MTG Arena.
There’s is a crafting aspect where you use wildcards to make cards Mitch.
One thing to think about is players that only want to play Commander would just need to get 1 copy of any cards they need. So instead of using 4 wildcards to make a play set of mythic/rares they’d just use 1 and spend the other 3 on other cards.
In paper you’d need to pull out your single copy of doubling season and put it back in a different deck if you have one copy. So there would be less incentive for people to crack packs or craft for usually a full playset.
There would be a lot of crafting up front to get staples, but then a large slowdown unless people need cards from new sets to switch in.
“I’m always making to look improvements” 👏 👏 well said Mitch 💪👌👍
I would definitely play commander online with friends. No digital only cards though
I really like these. Best thing to listen to while driving to and from work.
There's 0% chance mtga will get commander in it's current state...
if you have ever played goblins against life gain you will understand why
the game chugs if you get more than 20 triggers
Too bad not every card in the game is serial numbered as that would help the paywall thing so every unique card could be uploaded to arena and unlocked with their serial code
This comment got a little lengthy... So I have separated it into the different key Points that you covered in your video.
Social: Have people agree to new TOS saying that they won't hold Wizards liable. and of course have a STRONG report system in place for improper use. but then give us voice chat (i'd say for that format only, but it would also be nice to have in the others too). Just like on any other online game that has open chats, yes there will be people who abuse it in one way or another. but then they get reported and muted, or banned. that takes care of the social side of things IMO; not as great as sitting with friends playing, but a helluva lot more convenient.
Card base: They definitely COULD do it. They'd probably end up charging, as you said. and it would ONLY be available to the Commander format. This would be the biggest hurdle for Wizards as they would have to come up with and program in all of the Animations and such for the older cards.
Economy: They would have to make a way for wildcards to be purchasable, and again probably restrict that to Commander only. Currently, besides the Rare and Mythic wildcard packs that are available as i'm typing this, the only way to get wildcards is to open x number of packs or get the wildcard as a pull in the pack. They make them available for Purchase through the Gem/coin options already available in-game and you will have solved, and in my mind improved, the economy issue. Think of it this way: right now, only "money" players can own some of the more (ridiculously) expensive cards. Why is that? there are a finite number of those cards printed and supply and demand come into play to control the market price of a card. So people who can't afford to pay $100+ for a single card are restricted to second or third tier options. In Arena, that wouldn't be an issue. Yes, it would quickly become "Pay to win" because people willing to spend money on gems to get the wildcards would of course have better collections; but that happens already and isn't the point of this comment. And this would make Wizards more money because (unless I'm missing something on the resale market) they don't make a penny on the resale market. This would be a way for them to add revenue from their BIGGEST, yet I dare say least profitable, format. There are a ton of other options/reasons that this would be a HUGELY profitable option for Wizards; but again, not the point of this comment.
1v1-4 Player UI Changes: i don't know that this is as difficult as we are imagining. they already have the programing for different areas; for example graveyard, exile, deck. and they have the ability to click on a card for more info. What I would do is have Your board on the bottom half and then split the top half into three, which you can click one to focus on. For interactions between other players have the top go to the two interacting and have the cards interacting be in the foreground to show the interactions. It could get a little messy when a "wide" deck goes to attack EVERYONE but it gets messy in paper magic too haha. If anything this would be a bit easier to follow because of the arrows. They would definitely need to tweak the timers in the game to give people to take a look at the board state and make an informed decision. As for people going AFK? That definitely happens on real tables too. I don't know the amount of times that someone has gotten up to go to the bathroom or other such and we've had to wait for them to come back because we were attacking them or some other such (i'm guilty of it too). So you put a skip option in for AFK or something like "Unless directly impacted" so that it skips their priority automatically unless they are attacked, targeted or there is some sort of board wipe. At that point the normal timer would come into play.
I would add that they just add the card database and that way when you buy a paper pre built deck you get a free digital copy of the pre-built deck and then how they use the wild cards now it could be used to get those few cards you want to make your pre-built better. Everything else I agree with as well
I've thought a lot about this subject, I'll try to describe them in as few words as possible:
*TLDR:* Commander will most likely be added to Arena (which will likely take at least a year unless already in development), but it won't live up to the IRL experience
A recent survey actually asked players whether or not they'd like to see "multiplayer" in Arena, as in 4 player free for all, and what formats they'd like to see. Commander was an option, as well as features such as text/voice chat, and open friend requests.
I think Commander will be playable at some point, but there are fundamental errors in the way the game sees some interactions (e.g. Stonecoil Serpent, an X cost, was countered by a spell that could only counter cmc 4+, there's also the Ashaya vs Sludge Monster glitch that's known issue).
The main issue here is the amount of development time it would take to iron out all of the existing rules conflicts, plus the addition of possible conflicts with multiple players... not to mention the slowdown and crashing when too many triggers are on the stack.
As far as economy is concerned, I don't have much input, as I've been playing almost daily for years now, so I have 60-70% of the cards in the game without spending any money, that being said, there are a lot of cards I'd like to see in the game that I consider Commander staples (Fractured Identity, Sol Ring, even some extra scummy combo pieces).
Mitch makes some great points here as to the social aspects of the game, no matter how Commander would be implemented, there will certainly be benefits to playing in person, and drawbacks to playing on Arena.
More cards ? Easy ! You need an KI or more people for programs
I would love for them to atleast bring all the commander cards to Arena. I would be fine if they add yet another "format" like brawl to Arena and say, "Right this is Comander Brawl. Its not Comander, but its better than nothing."
I was massively excited for the Mur'kul, Lord of Bones and had a deck list ready to go, only for it to never come to Arena.
Great content as always.
I left when alchemy was added to arena but I definitely be back for commander as long as there was no alchemy and some sort of smart auto queue separation between different power level decks.
Yea I hate alchemy not even real cards big L for mtgA
I'd like to try it on arena but most likely with friends so we can coordinate decks and chat on discord or such. Playing against random people that rope and disconnect and so on and no way of communication feels way less desirable.
My brother got me into magic commander and I got my 1st paper pre-made commander deck sefris of the hidden ways commander of the dungeons & dragons adventures in the forgotten realms. Then I found mtg arena and loved it as well with all the free cards you get. You get a free deck of every color just for playing the tutorial. I then used those to make other decks. The more you play you earn different wild cards that you can trade for any other card you want with mythic being rare and what you trade for commanders or other high profile cards. After 3 months I have like 20-30 decks and 10 historic brawl decks I've made for FREE. So I love it but... I want to play commander to have the multiple player aspect which is the biggest thing missing. I feel like they're missing an opportunity to give us commander mode just because they don't have all the cards on there yet. They could give us limited commander using the cards they have on there and keep adding new ones as they go. Just imagine too in the future when you buy a commander pre built deck new you get the digital version of those cards free on there to play online with. It would incentives buying paper decks to play with friends irl but also online with strangers to make new friends while laying in bed playing at night lol. A lot of things they could do but we need some type of multi player commander on there even if it's limited at first.
I just checked Scryfall for every card on arena that is legal in commander (this includes cards for explorer but not the digital only cards) and it said 7,206 cards. Which isn’t great but also it’s 7 times what’s legal in only Brawl (btw brawl is standard only cards Historic brawl is probably what you were looking for)
Everyone plays historic brawl, nobody plays normal brawl cause it sucks
@@Cynsham I know but just searching for cards legal in brawl won’t show the cards he was looking for.
I haven’t played too much of arena but when I did it was to play Historic Brawl when they made it permanent
If they brought Commander to the Game, I would play it
Always appreciate the videos dude!
I agree with you completely. The face to face aspect of commander is why I play it. If that was taken away, it would not be nearly as enjoyable to play
It should 1000% be in Arena
I mean that’s basically what historic brawl is.
I think that’s the closest we’ll actually get to it.
It doesn't have to be commander. 4 player brawl would bring me back to Arena
4 player historic brawl to be exact lol
I am actually surprised it hasn't happened yet. I know multiplayer support have been on many people's wishlist for a long time. Not just for commander but for other multiplayer formats as well.
They’ve always teased us, because despite there not being any play except 1v1, you still have to target your opponent.
I guess in theory they could do commander on Arena.
I have to say though: there's a huge number of cards that would need to be added to the game before they even get close. That's 5-10 years of back-releasing sets right there. (& I reckon I might have been a bit optimistic in that estimation.)
They could take an abridged route, & source deckstats from edhrec so that they print 99% of all the most commonly used cards in Commander. That would chop in half the number of cards they'd need to work through, but then again you wouldn't enjoy the same freedom to construct that you'd enjoy in paper commander.
Either way, it's still years of work to get anywhere near the actual card pool for commander. & honestly; given the time & work involved it's probably not cost effective for them to do.
The other elephant in the room (arena only does 1v1) is probably not actually that bad. Compared to fixing the card pool, patching arena to handle a 4 player game should be trivial.*
Tldr: they "could" do it. But it's a monumental amount of work, & I don't think it makes financial sense for them.
*Obviously I don't know the internal workings of MTGA, so this is assumption on my part.
I'm basing this on the title alone. Arena kind of already has Commander on the client. It's called the historic brawl. Which yes brawl but it uses every card on arena is hundred card Singleton and you have a legendary creature or Planeswalker, but many people in the commander community think that you should be able to run walkers as your commanders anyways. Will edit at end if thoughts have changed.
The closest they get is in both you have a legendary creature or planeswalker in the command zone and are singleton formats. Other than that they are very much fundamentally different
If Mtg arena gets 3 player commander, I’m all in.
I love that this video is Mitch coming up with a premise and listing all the reason why the premise isn’t going to happen. 😂😂😂
I feel like after another year or so adding commander but not going into backlog of cards could be interesting so you don't see all the same combinations and broken setups could be interesting because allowing all cards and easy access to them means most people in random play will just look up and build the most degen decks so limiting the pool a bit more can help with that (or hurt equally possibly.
I don’t think they should add EDH to Arena. It’d be such a headache incorporating all the cards and it would lose the social, in-person aspect of it like you said.
Historic Brawl is the format you should have looked up on scryfall. It is going to have the Alchemy cards, but would be the closer number to of cards on arena.
Hey Mitch, really like this new format! Couple of areas of improvement: I personally think it would be beneficial to have minor cuts at times, so that if you do get off-topic or rambley, forget words, thoughts, etc, that way you can make simple cuts/edits to keep things more on track. PleasantKenobi does that for his videos and it's not distracting and helps the video be more focused. Other pieces would be to try and cut back on filler words. I know that's tough cuz I'm also from the midwest but the "ya knows", "whatnot", etc. can get distracting/make the points you are making seem more disjointed and less coherent. My 2 cents on your 2 cents, but I have always enjoyed listening to your input on all things MTG!
I feel like them adding commander to arena would also need to herald more then 1v1, I’d like to build some of the commander precons that are released in sets into arena
The problem MTG Arena has is that it requires you to first "get" the card in their system to make the decks. Which means I would have to first buy the cards in the game to be able to even play the decks. Although i have heard (I admit i havent played in a few years) that in Historic, the cards you use are already unlocked? I dont know if this is true, but if it is, then yes, there is a way for them to make the format viable in their system.
They could make it so that you can make decks for commander, and you would have all the cards unlocked FOR that format alone, while keeping their current setup for their standard format.
A subscription for commander which unlocks all cards would also not be that bad of a thing imo. As long as its not too expensive (I would say no more than 10-15 a month) they could make some serius bank while allowing players to be able to play as much as they want.
The Chat and friends list would need an overhaul first. Then, they would need to work in a way to play with more than two people.
A better pay option for wild cards would be a wonderful option to get decks you want. Right now it's stupid expensive to buy rare and mythic rare wild cards. I wish we had better options.
wait I thought it already was, I could have sworn I saw a friend playing commander a couple months ago.
my biggest complain is the 100 deck limit. with all the cards coming out and all the different firmats I could easily make a 1,000 decks.
I think it can happen in a massive way but also respect what came before . Mtg is big and it can get far bigger. Wizerds needs to make a far better system then mtg arena though and build a 4 or 5 player online system using the avatar system but as your commander instead and have virtual avatar with voice chat system . Gaming is 10000billion times bigger and it would push it to far more people and it would be a massive win for the entire community and for the company
Agreed. I tried arena. Brawl was ok. I was reminded why I don’t play standard. But ultimately, I just don’t enjoy magic in that setting. I like commander, limited, sealed, in person.
Name Idea: Mitch's Musings
I doubt they’ll ever add commander since they won’t edit the mtg arena client to allow for more than 2 players. They make it sound like it’s a monumental task whenever it’s brought up.
Even though it’s a hot take, I like playing “historic” Brawl on mtg arena so I can use cards all the way back to amonkhet. And those decks play differently than commander. Like I was able to make this mono-white vampire ‘Mavren Fein’ brawl deck with mostly ixalan cards. I love that deck because it makes for quick and fun gameplay. Brawl is a nice change of pace from commander.
I hope Commander comes to Arena. It's the only format I like to play
It's halfway there with brawl just 40 more cards and don't have the set restriction that brawl has. Or if they just remove the set restriction from brawl and turn brawl into just 60 card commander.
Is there some unwritten rule that nobody talks about being able to use OBS/Spelltable & Moxfield test play as a way to play Commander for free online with friends (obviously WOC would not like this to be common)
I would like a 4 player mode with chat options to toggle off and on.
imo legend of runeterra is the best free to play online card playing game format when it comes to buying cards
Commander with all the cards is impossible to happen in a few years, since it'll take longer than that to get Pioneer on Arena at the rate they're going
Will it? Possibly. Should it? Definitely not. Why? Because Commander online wouldn't work very well without the ability to chat freely with the other players, but adding freeform chat to Arena would be a nightmare. With online anonymity replacing face-to-face social contact (even if the faces are remote from each other), all of the politicking and banter that makes Commander what it is would be replaced by "emotes" and roping. No thanks.
I like Arena, I just wish they had some sort of cross reward system where you could redeem paper packs for digital packs. Something like a QR code they’ll give you a digital booster, or a wildcard or something like that. I’m also not naive enough to think that this would actually happen.
It should happen
Pokemon is doing it already, I dont understand why not mtg too.
A simple code in every sealed product would work wonders to drive both communities(online and paper) upwards as one has an incentive to buy paper and the other can try the client since they got all the codes lying around.
I was just saying this in another comment lol. So I highly agree. I currently only own 1 paper deck commander but I have 20-30 decks made on arena for free just from playing it a lot and getting wildcards from opening card packs you earn for free. I'd buy more paper decks if they gave us the digital versions as well included. They just need to add the card database and worry about card animations later adding them over time as they already do now
The amount of coding would just be too insane, soooo many bugs
I would play if they brought it over. My concern is they would put a monthly fee on EDH play or do rotations to keep people paying
I have touch arena since it came out i just wasn't doing the grind cuz I have a little amount of cards as much as I WOULD like commander to come to arena but I just don't have a good time on arena
As soon as they figure out the optimal way to extract as much money as possible out of it, yes, it will 100% come to arena.
Still digging the uncut unscripted versions. Shame to hear you don’t think commander will be coming, but it’s understandable
I don't think you will ever be able to politic on arena. They have too many safeguards in place for chat to make sure there's no obscenities or profanities. Also, they are at least 18,000 cards shy of having the full list of playable EDH cards, so I don't think it will ever happen
Oh, I mean 21-22,000 cards. I didn't realize it was that many until you said so
How am I gonna git my OG duals into arena?!?
To be fair Historic Brawl on Arena has over 7,500 cards
I would play commander in Arena if they did add it but I think its like playing Dnd online vs in person. The feel will be different either way
They need commander at this point wizards hasn’t been doing good in it’s PR and to add the disaster which is Aftermath so this could be a good bounce back for the community
Sorta surprised untapped didnt come up as a way to play commander online
edh on arena wouldnt need all the cards just a large pool. All the cards that have already been place on arena, that arently currently usable due to rotation is huge. It would need a new name format as it wouldnt have all the older cards but it would be fine with the current database
I think Historic Brawl should be 4 players. But they should have built it from the start. If Arena didn't had a mobile client then Arena could have easily done 4 players. Plus 4 players formats like two headed giant be able to be played.
Commander’s Quarters: Loose Change
Look all im saying is, make a friendly game mode: 4 way 100 card historic brawl! Thats all!
Historic Brawl is all I play on Arena
If they just add multi player to historic brawl and not needing to add all the other cards I would be 100% fine
I don't think the client could even handle commander, I'd rather they not even try
Love these videos. I would love to see commander come to arena.
Oh my god, Mitch, what a boomer! Imagine wanting to sit with OTHER PEOPLE, play some mtg and have interactions with people!
hahaha I am 100% kidding, although, I did really want to be able to play EDH on arena, I actually changed my mind. I think, aside form the headache it would require to program, something would be lost by not playing in person.
If there was a way for WotC to have a discord type thing where you use YOUR cards and deal with all the interactions, I would be ok with that, but in-person commander is probably still better.
Commander absolutely, 100%, no questions asked could and SHOULD be put into Arena, but they won't put commander into Arena any time soon if ever, they're too lazy to put any actual time or effort into improving the game since they're already raking in boatloads of cash from it even in the barren, shitty state it has been in for a long time. Arena not having commander is one of the reasons I stopped playing. The other reason I stopped playing is because the card economy in the game is horrific and the completely irrelevant "rewards" they give you are underwhelming to put it nicely. Playing 15+ matches every single day in order to collect all the daily rewards is time consuming, and you're spending multiple hours of the day playing in order to get a couple thousand gold and open like 2 packs. Coincidentally and ironically, they tried to make magic more "casual" and "affordable" if you don't want to have to buy a whole bunch of physical cards, but if you want to have a decent collection of cards in MTGA you will be guaranteed to spend more money on the game than you would have to in order to get the exact same cards in paper magic.
Hell they can't even fix brawl where I can play a friend.
They seem to be slowly working toward having all of Modern available, once that's done we can start calling for classic cards to appear. The bigger issues are definitely communication and multi-player, neither of which are easy to implement.
They're working towards Pioneer. Not sure about Modern
I kinda like the idea of MTG being seperate from the internet and computer platforms just to keep us away from all these devices.
I actually think arena commander would actually end the age of command. Commander would still be around, but putting it on arena would make a downturn in its popularity.
You are having fun with your buds playing commander, fair, fun. But think about how commander would actually happen on arena. You have a lot longer between your turns. You aren't chatting with people. There is no rule 0. You don't know the people and you can bet they are going to be playing as close to CEDH as possible because they want to win. I think arena commander would show people the worst of commander rather than the best of it.
In a conversation about whether EDH capability could or should be added to Arena, you have to consider that MTGO and Arena are fundamentally different; Paper Magic and MTGO are *trading card* games, whereas Arena is a *collectible card* game. Without a secondary market or the ability to trade cards between players, EDH on Arena would very quickly become dominated by those few players willing and able to spend piles of money obtaining powerful cards and everyone else would quickly lose interest in a 'money wins' game. This is largely the reality in the formats already on Arena, and is the main reason I no longer play it. I simply got tired of having to dump tons of money into every newly released set just to keep from getting steamrolled every game - it's just not fun anymore. Lack of ability to trade isn't just a massive downside for EDH on Arena, it's a deal-breaker. Unless WotC gave up sole control of the economy on Arena by allowing trading, EDH would not work on Arena.
Since MTGO already has multiplayer EDH, it makes more sense that better graphics could be built on top of the existing code, but as Mitch pointed out, WotC and Hasbro have no incentive to pull attention away from a game where they control the entire market.
I like the sound of "uncut quarters", where you give your "two cents" unscripted about mtg and not necessarily commander related. My opinion of arena is that it's not social enough. I prefer spell table to get the social aspect when I can't play in person. I don't think it should, but I don't doubt seeing commander come to arena.
A big problem is that Arena is a mobile game. DH on a phone screen? Sounds like a nightmare. Also lag with 4 players.
I'd be happy with just 4 player!
Currently you have historic brawl which has one of the stupidest ban lists mixed with the alchemy cards for arena. Ex: Demonic tutor is banned but paradox engine is unbanned. Even if they added all the cards from magic's history for a commander format and it's own ban list that reflects current commander's ban list it still wouldn't work. Essentially you would be rebuilding all of arena from the ground up to work with one format in the style it currently is in essentially being online 2.
Better question, would it matter? Would it bypass the ungodly amount of resentment that players have for the game and Hasbro? For me personally the answer is no.
There's a big difference between quarters and two cents
If commander went to Arena I'd probably never get to play paper with my friends again because they'd default to the easier method of mechanically interacting with Magic, and I would likely sell off my collection and slowly quit playing Magic as a result because digital is never the same for me as being in person.
I say they should offer free digital versions of paper pre built commander decks you buy in the future. So it drives people to buy paper decks to play with their friends irl and then you could play that same deck you bought, online for free with strangers making new friends to play with. I own 1 paper deck and 20-30 decks on mtg arena cause I was able to earn them for free with card packs using the wild cards to get staples for those decks. It's easier for me to play brawl online than with other people irl as it's just not available in my area. I'd buy more paper decks if I could get those as digital versions included
will it? probably. Anything to make those Hasbro suits happy with cash flow. should it? Not the way it is now, because the card pool really isn't capable of handling it. Playing one on one would have people building cEDH which is that hyper competetive, and overall fairly low on the fun scale in terms of most Commander/EDH. but, Could it? absolutely. they could turn the failed Brawl into a commander that follows the rules of Pioneer cardpool.