For years now, most Magic: The Gathering sets have Commander deck tie-ins that are released along with them. Most, but not all.
According to Gavin Verhey, Principle Designer for the collectible card game, says that, in hindsight, the company regrets not including Commander decks with some of the game's more contemporary releases. The reason, he says, is because the company works on sets years before the public sees them and they simply have to live with some of the decisions made early on in that process.
"Sometimes we make a decision and the train is moving down the track and before something even happens we're like nope, wish we had definitely done it different," Verhey comments.
WATCH ON YOUTUBE -- Commander Decks: Why They're Not Included for All Magic Releases
He says that's why some sets, such as the Spider-Man, Avatar, and the upcoming The Hobbit set lack any sort of Commander decks to go along with them.
"If we knew then what we know now, we would have absolutely had a Commander deck for Spider-Man," he says. "We would have absolutely probably had a Commander deck for The Hobbit as well -- at least one."
Verhey says that what Wizards of the Coast has been seeing from players over the past few years is an increased appetite for preconstructed Commander decks. The problem, though, is that data can lag behind real-time trends. Wizards had received player feedback that the company was printing too many Commander decks at one point, so they scaled back production. Since then, the trend had changed.
"In the interim time between hearing that feedback and implementing it and the sets finally coming out, by the time we got to the sets that only had two Commander decks, we started hearing a lot of feedback that was 'Why would only two for this set? I love buying all four,'" tells Verhey.
Knowing now what they wish they had known a few years ago about this increased desire for Commander decks for all new Magic set releases, it would be of little surprise to see an expansion in Commander decks and related products in the future.
